


Reckless

by Lucky_Moony



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: AU, Amortentia, Don't copy on another site, Enemies to Lovers, Falling In Love, First task:Fire dwelling salamanders(Hogwarts), Homophobia, I love to switch POV, Jealous!Albus, M/M, On Hiatus, Pining, Romance, Second Task:Beauxbâtons, Slow Burn, Triwizard Tournament, Yule Ball, sassy!Gellert, who is the ultimate queen in this? Gellert or Vinda?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-14
Updated: 2019-07-24
Packaged: 2020-03-05 10:01:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 27,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18826402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lucky_Moony/pseuds/Lucky_Moony
Summary: AU- What if a Triwizard Tournament had been held in 1898 between three of the biggest wizarding schools of Europe: Beauxbâtons, Hogwarts and Durmstrang?Gellert Grindelwald, the Durmstrang champion, is pretty sure he will easily win the prestigious competition until he meets his match in Albus Dumbledore. Sparks fly between them at first, but soon they are caught up in a whirlwind romance that will change their lives forever.





	1. Foreign visitors arrive

**Author's Note:**

> And here I go with a Triwizard AU. I hope I'll be able to do justice to this trope :D
> 
> As always, English is not my first language Xxxx

‟And how was Cairo?” Elphias asks as soon as he and Albus have sat down at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall.

Around them, the air is filled with laughter and joy as all the students of Hogwarts are back for a new school year and most are getting reacquainted with their friends for the first time in months.

On the table, plates are suddenly magically filled with various types of food. Both seventh years realize how hungry they are as they quickly load their plates with a little of everything.

The Start-of-Term Feast looks even more scrumptious than ever and it seems the house-elves have outdone themselves once more.

Aberforth, Albus’ sibling, sits down a few vacant seats away from his brother and his best friend, but chimes in their conversation anyway, like he always does.

The latter is more of a loner and doesn’t have a steady group of friends. ‟He won a gold medal for _Ground-Breaking Contribution to the International Alchemical Conference_ or something along that line, ” he says as he too starts to fill his plate. ‟Mother was so proud of his achievement that she’s been telling everyone around Godric’s Hollow how brilliant her prodigious son is. To top it all off, Mr. Perfect was named Head Boy as well.”

To say Aberforth and Albus don’t really get along anymore is an understatement.

If when they were young boys, they spent countless hours playing together in the backyard of their family’s house, wore identical clothes and sported the same haircut to look even more alike, as soon as Albus’ superior intelligence began to show, their mother quickly focussed her attention and her affection on him instead of on her middle child, putting Aberforth, who was wilder in nature and wasn’t interested in school that much in the back of her mind.

With Ariana being ill and her husband having been sent to prison, Kendra Dumbledore has her arms full already and taking care of Aberforth sadly isn’t very high on her priority list.

Elphias quirks an eyebrow at Aberforth, as he takes a bite of a deliciously crispy chicken drumstick. ‟Well, it makes perfect sense Albus was picked to be Head Boy. Who else would Headmaster Black choose anyway?”

‟Indeed, who else?” Aberforth sourly replies before he quickly turns his back on them.

‟Certainly not Henry Potter…” replies Alicia Sparrow, a fellow Gryffindor, who’s sitting across from Elphias, as she winks at both boys.

The three start to snort as soon as they spot the bespectacled and messy-haired Henry, who is sitting not too far from them and who is once more trying to land a date with Lexia Fleamont.

‟And how was the rest of your summer, Elphias?” Albus asks as the anxious-looking first years are being lined up by Professor Merrythought for the Sorting Ceremony.

The friends pause their conversation for a while as Headmaster Black brings in the Sorting Hat and the little first years are being sorted into their new house, only getting back to it when the sorting is over and the feast goes on.

‟Well, you know how my aunt is. I’ve had to work at her shop for most of the time. She says I’m not bright enough to handle the customers and the potion brewing, but at least she lets me carry around crates and stuff and I can fill up the vials too. I’ve earned some money out of it and I’m pretty sure I look more fit  by now.”

Elphias flexes his right arm just to prove his point and Alicia rolls her eyes at him, while Albus smirks a little in his pumpkin juice.

Truth be told, the two of them sadly are rather skinny things;  Albus preferring to read and study instead of working out and Elphias generally avoiding physical work whenever he can and his aunt isn’t looking.

You see, Elphias, who had contracted the dragon pox shortly before he had begun his first year at Hogwarts, had lost his parents to the illness and had been taken in since then, by his aunt, who was a bit harsh at times but was also very protective of him. The latter owned a potion shop in the magical village of Puddlemere, which was located in the West Country.

If it was true Elphias wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, his unwavering loyalty and kindness more than made up for his lack of wit.

The two outcasts, Elphias because of his pockmarks and Albus because of the family drama that had surrounded his father’s arrest, had quickly bonded together during their first day at Hogwarts and had been inseparable since then.

Both boys laughed as they exchanged more stories about their summer, while other Gryffindors joined in their conversation every now and then to greet them and to congratulate Albus on his Head Boy nomination.

After a while, the food vanished from the table and Clarissa Abbott, who finally caught Albus’ eyes for the first time since the feast had begun, smiled sweetly at him from the Hufflepuff table.

Elphias, who had always had a good eye, spotted the girl’s gesture and quickly commented on it. ‟Seems like Clarissa still has a crush on you. You should ask her out.”

‟She’s kind, but she’s not really my type. Plus, with school and everything, I’m too busy to even have a girlfriend.” Albus declares as he avoids Clarissa’s stare and glances at the teacher’s table instead.

Elphias stares at his friend with incredulity. ‟Merlin knows I would do anything at this point to get a girlfriend of my own. If Merope Bulstrode asked me on a date, I would say yes if it meant I would finally get laid.”

Alicia knocks Elphias in the ribs, while Albus rolls his eyes at him.

‟I mean we are 17 years old, Al.” Elphias points out.

The fact Albus doesn’t seem more interested by girls has always struck him as odd. His aunt told him is friend probably was a late bloomer, whatever that meant, but still... ‟Most of us will be married by the end of next year. I don’t know how you even-”

‟Sush, Headmaster Black is about to start his speech!” quickly states Albus, a faint blush present on his cheeks, as he focuses his attention on their Headmaster, which forces Elphias to drop the matter.

It was true though that the dark haired older wizard was standing up and was waiting for everyone’s silence to begin his start of year speech, now that all the first years had been sorted into their respective house and that everyone’s belly was pleasantly full.

‟I am very happy to see you here tonight and back to our school, children.”The headmaster began as the last mutterings died into the room.

‟Of course, we know you don’t really care about us; which is fine because we don’t like you either...” Muttered Henry Potter loudly enough for everyone around him to hear and a prefect had to kick him under the table in order to shut him up.

It’s true though that the Headmaster isn’t very popular among his students and it would be a lie not to say that many share Potter’s view on the topic...

If Black heard the comment, it doesn’t show on his face, as he continues to talk.

‟This year, some of our students will be able to experience an incredible adventure. The Ministry has decided that the Triwizard Tournament is going to be held after a hundred years hiatus. Students from fourth to seven year will be able to place their name in the Goblet of Fire, and one of them will be selected to represent our school against Durmstrang and Beauxbâtons.  The first task will be held at Hogwarts and I’m counting on everyone’s best behavior to warmly welcome our foreign visitors once they get here.  The second task will be held at Beauxbâtons, which is located in the Pyrénées mountains and lastly, the third task will be held at Durmstrang, which location, as some of you already know, is unplottable.”

‟I’ve heard a Cockatrice had been let loose on the jury last time and the death rate had been so high, they decided to cancel it afterwards,” commented Arthur McGrawth to no one in particular before the Headmaster went on with his speech.

‟The prize, which of course will be won by the Hogwarts’ champion, will be eternal glory, the Triwizard cup, which is a thing of beauty, and money. Of course, the sixth and seventh years students who will desire to do so will be able to accompany our champion to the other tasks.” The older students cheered upon hearing this, while the younger ones seemed very bitter about it. ‟Prefects, I will now ask you to escort the first years to their dormitories and hope to see everyone up and early in class tomorrow morning.”

Black stared at his students one last time before they all began to leave the Great Hall to get back to their respective common rooms in a symphony of laughter and excited whispering.

After all, eternal glory, a dangerous competition, a glittering trophy and a pile of money sounded way too fantastic to be true.

***

Albus muttered a quick Nox as soon as he closed the ugly new set of curtains that has been placed around his four poster bed to substitute the ones he had burned for the second time last semester.

He thinks about the tournament as he settles down in his crimson and gold blankets. To say he would love to add the Triwizard cup to his ever-growing collection of prizes is an euphemism. After all, he was made for eternal glory…

In another dormitory, Aberforth thinks about the competition too. He sees in it a way to finally outshine his prat of a big brother. If he was chosen as the Hogwarts’ champion, their mother would probably be proud of him once more.

He can easily picture how she and Ariana would look like once they would learn he was the chosen one, which makes his dreams way sweeter than usual.

As he closes his eyes, Elphias secretly wants to participate to the Triwizard Tournament too. Surely, if he was selected as the Hogwarts’ champion, the girls would look past his look and he too might finally be able to find a nice girlfriend. Having been an only child and an orphan for a while now, he would love to settle down and have a family of his own too.

***

Albus and Elphias quickly settle back into their old school routine.  It’s their seventh year at Hogwarts after all.

The redhead is soon back to being top of all of their classes and his Head Boy duties keep him somewhat busy too.  He regularly sends home owls to keep his mother informed of his whereabouts and tells her in one of his letters that he is going to place his name in the Goblet of Fire once the subscriptions for the tournament have begun.

If Aberforth tells her the same, Kendra doesn’t comment on it…

As the days go by, the students are more and more eager to see the foreign visitors arrive, which finally happens at the end of September, when the delegation from Beauxbâtons arrives in the middle of dinner in a large blue carriage pulled by Abraxan horses.

It looks magnificent and so does the Beauxbâtons students, who all look gorgeous in their silky blue uniforms. Most of them are seventh and sixth years, but there are at least three fifth years and two fourth years among them.  Most have brown hair and brown eyes and they quickly befriend the Ravenclaws and sit at their table in the Great Hall, since the blue of their uniform matches theirs so well.

A week later, during one of the meals, Headmaster Black declares the Goblet of Fire will soon be placed in the Great Hall and would be ready to receive the names of everyone who dreamed of participating in the tournament.

The only thing missing for it to happen is for the Durmstrang students to get here, which shouldn’t be too long by now…

***

When October finally rolls by and the Durmstrang delegation hasn’t made it yet to the castle, people start to gossip.

Had Durmstrang decided not to participate in the competition after all?

Would the tournament be canceled?

Madame Clémence Touraine, Beauxbâtons’ headmistress even comments on it with the other teachers in the Great Hall one evening, which soon makes the students panic.

When finally, one stormy evening, the doors of the Great Hall are suddenly opened and the lights are dimmed down, everyone lets out a sigh of relief as in storms Nikita Volodya, Durmstrang’s headmistress, a short woman of four feet tall you wouldn’t want to mess with.

The Durmstrang delegation silently follows her and looks quite small.  She barely has ten students with her as both Madame Clémence and Headmaster Black rush forward to greet her with cordial handshakes.

Mistress Volodya quickly declares with a strong accent that their ship has been stuck in a sea storm for a few days, and that they had to send some students back home due to seasickness, which explains the smallness of her delegation.

The Durmstrang students all look well behaved and are wearing red capes that are trimmed with fur. They wear a plain black buttoned-up shirt underneath it, black trousers, knee length boots, a red tie with their school’s crest embroidered on it and brown belts with a shiny silver buckle to complete their look.

Some are even wearing fur hats, which really is way too much considering the weather in Scotland right now. It seems the rumors were true though and that Durmstrang really is located in one of the northern regions of the world…

‟Is it me or do they all look as though they have a stick up their ass? ” asks Henry to no one in particular, while Elphias burst out laughing.

Aberforth, whose not sitting too far away from them once more, takes the opportunity to comment on that fact as well.‟That tall blonde in the rear looks so pompous. With his girly curls and that look, he probably does and doesn’t mind it.”

The three boys snort out loud as Albus glares at them with authority and throws them rolls from his side of the table in order to shut them up.

The Durmstrang students quickly sit down at the Slytherin table, while everyone in the room begin to talk at once.

Finally, the Triwizard Tournament could be set into motion.


	2. Meet the champions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, English is not my first language Xxx

Aberforth wasn’t too pleased to discover the next day that the tall blonde guy with the girly curls from Durmstrang was in his year. Said guy was sitting in the back of the History of Magic classroom and most of the Gryffindor girls were glancing at him all the time and giggling, which was incredibly annoying.

What was even more annoying was that the blonde wasn’t properly sitting in his chair and the teacher hadn’t reprimanded him for it yet.

The fact the other Durmstrang students were sitting as far away from the guy as possible was oddly suspicious too, but Abe could understand why they were all doing so.

In their place, he wouldn’t want to be near that git either.

Cuthbert Binns, Hogwarts’ sole ghost teacher, was just droning on and on about the Giant Wars and other uninteresting topics that would certainly never be useful in Abe’s life, when the unthinkable happened.

The Durmstrang boy quirked an eyebrow at their teacher, and without even raising his hand, interrupted the class.

Since like most, Abe was almost sleeping at this point, he missed what the guy said, but Binns seemed pretty shocked.

It probably was the first time a student had dared interrupt his class. Or maybe the ghost was just surprised to discover that there was, in fact, someone who wasn’t sleeping in front of him and who had been paying attention to what he was saying for once... Who knew?

‟What I mean to say, sir,” the way the blonde said 'sir' sounded very rude, which was a feat in itself. ‟Is that you are mistaken. The treaty wasn’t signed in 1436 like you’ve just said, but in 1416.”

There were some impressed whispers in the class as Gellert smiled cockily at the ghost ‟And, I’m fairly sure the giant you are referring to is Menoetius instead of Cottu.”

Binns gaped at everyone for a good five minutes, before he cleared his throat and continued his lesson.

If a ghost could have blushed out of shame, he would probably have been crimson red at this point, because the Durmstrang student had been absolutely right in his statement.

Abe rolled his eyes as everyone gushed at the boy even more.

It truly was the worst Monday ever…

***

The thing was Gellert (who named their kid Gellert, really?), the Durmstrang boy, wasn’t just in History of Magic with Aberforth.

No, he had to be in his Care of Magical Creatures class as well and he was an insufferable cocky know-it-all in there too.

In fact, there was a persistent rumor that some of the teachers had gone directly to Mistress Volodya to tell her they were having some troubles with Gellert, and to ask her if she could somehow control her student, but all she had done so far was to shrug at them and to knock down some vodka.

Everywhere Aberforth went, someone was gushing over how handsome Gellert looked and how intelligent he was, which was infuriating, truly.

At least, the other Durmstrang students weren’t as bad, since they were so bland and most of them weren’t able to say two straight words in English.

Truth be told, the only good thing in Abe’s whole week had been the fact that he had managed to place his name in the Goblet of Fire.

He had even spotted Elphias Doge, Albus’ best friend, doing the same thing right after him.

Aberforth had rolled his eyes at the sight.

Surely, Elphias didn’t seriously think he would be picked as Hogwarts’s champion, right?

***

Vinda Rosier was used to being treated like royalty everywhere she went. After all, she came from an ancient pureblood family, one of the sacred twenty-eight, and looked stunning and stylish in every occasion.

It had been barely two weeks since her arrival at Hogwarts,  yet she was already strolling around the halls as if she owned the place.

Boys from both Durmstrang and Hogwarts were already all crazy over her, which was funny, really, considering her interests lay elsewhere...

After all, she had more refined tastes.

As she dropped her name in the Goblet of Fire (a few of her admirers staring at her with hungry eyes as she did so), she almost bumped into a gangly redhead, who had just done the same.

The latter quickly apologized to her as she barely glanced at him and walked stylishly back to the Ravenclaw table, the incident already in the back of her mind.

***

Albus smiled contritely one last time to the Beauxbâtons girl, before he sat back down at the Gryffindor table.

‟Dumbledore, have you seen how beautiful that girl you’ve just bumped into really is?” Henry Potter asked as soon as he sat down next to the redhead and spoke loudly enough so Lexia Fleamont could hear him from the other side of the table. ‟I’ve never seen a beauty quite like her. ”

‟Her name is Vinda Rosier,” chimed in Elphias, as he pulled a piece of parchment from out of his bag.

‟Well, I’ll bet you anything I can get a kiss from her before Yule,” declared Henry as Alicia sighed loudly next to him.

‟You are dreaming with your eyes wide open, Potter. That girl is way out of your league,” yelled Lexia Fleamont from her side of the table, before she abruptly got up and stormed out of the Great Hall, the other seven year Gryffindors rolling their eyes at how oblivious Potter and Fleamont really were.

***

Finally, as mid-October rolled by, the names of the champions of the upcoming Triwizard Tournament were to be announced and the excitation was palpable in the Great Hall.

When Headmaster Black asked for silence, everyone listened to him at once, which probably had been a first in his whole career.

Soon, the Goblet of Fire, suddenly ablaze with blue fire, produced a piece of paper that landed in the Headmaster’s outstretched hand.

Of course, the latter took his sweet time to unfold the said piece of paper…

He clearly was appreciating all the attention he was getting. ‟The champion from Beauxbâtons is a girl,” Black began before he paused, seeming slightly surprised by this fact. Madame Clémence loudly cleared her throat, which forced him to go on. ‟Yes, so as I was saying, the Beauxbâtons champion is V. Rosier.”

The tall black haired girl with stunning green eyes got up at once, a seductive smile soon appearing on her full lips.

She slowly walked up to the teacher’s table and shook hands with the three school heads, before she vanished into a room in the back of the Great Hall, where it had been said a journalist was supposed to interview the champions for the Daily Prophet.

Truth be told, Vinda had never doubted about the fact that she would be picked as Beauxbâtons’ champion and was more than ready to get her picture taken as many times as possible during the rest of the evening…

A few minutes later, the Goblet of Fire burst in blue flames once more, as a second piece of paper emerged from it. This time, it landed in Mistress Volodya’s hand.

The short witch glared at all the students, before she read the name that was written on the paper with her harsh voice. ‟The champion from Hogwarts is A. Dumbledore.”She glared at everyone once more, before she sat back down.

Both Albus’ and Aberforth’s heart stopped as they both stood up at the Gryffindor table and Headmaster Black coughed politely. ‟You see, Volodya, we have two A. Dumbledore.”

‟Well, next time, it would be wise to ask the students to write their full names on these papers,” Volodya declared as she stared darkly at the two brothers, who quickly walked up to her and studied the handwriting on the piece of paper.

Albus soon realized it was his piece of paper that had been selected and he rapidly joined Vinda in the backroom, as Aberforth stormed out of the Great Hall.

Of course it was Albus who had been picked. It was always Albus.

It was now Madame Clémence’s turn to announce who the last champion was, as she swiftly grabbed the last piece of paper thrown by the magical artifact. ‟Well, last but not least, the Durmstrang champion is G. Grindelwald,” she sweetly declared as the infamous blonde bad boy got up and slowly walked up to the front of the room.

Mistress Volodya sighed loudly and said something that sounded suspiciously like _Of course it was going to be him ,_ before she shook her head with discontent. ‟Grindelwald, you could at least have worn your uniform correctly tonight.”

‟Well, I am wearing my tie, Mistress Volodya.” Gellert had a smug look on his face as he said so.‟ It just doesn’t state anywhere in our school’s rules that it has to be tied a certain way.”

The headmistress sighed even more loudly, but let him go in the backroom anyway. The sooner Grindelwald was out of her sight, the better.

Everyone began to talk out loud at once as the last champion closed the door of the room behind him and the feast went on.

***

**_*Breaking news*Breaking news*Breaking news*Breaking news*Breaking news*Breaking news*_ **

**_Meet the champions_ **

**_By Margarita Lovelace_ **

_Dear readers, last night, I had the honor of meeting the three young champions who are going to compete in the upcoming infamous Triwizard Tournament, a magical sporting event which is renowned for its dangerousity._

_I was pleased to discover how different these three children are and will hopefully be able to describe them to the best of my ability in this humble little article._

_The first champion, who is from the Beauxbâtons Academy of Magic, is Vinda Rosier (see the pictures on the far right)._

_‟My dream is to get married to a nice husband and to have children of my own.” Promptly declared the gorgeous looking dark haired 16 year old, as she sat in front of me. ‟Winning the Triwizard Tournament would be the last thing I would like to achieve before doing so,” she added in an undertone, as she lovingly gazed at the Durmstrang champion during our interview._

_I tried to learn more about her, but she simply sighed and stared coquettishly at her competitor._

_Yes, my dear readers, you are reading correctly and I can assure you that love is in the air and wedding bells might toll before this competition is over!_

_Of course, I have to tell you all about the Durmstrang institute champion who caught Rosier’s heart now..._

_Gellert Grindelski, a very handsome looking blonde of sixteen years old, looks very sure of him as he smirks back at Rosier, whose heart is certainly fluttering in her chest (and truth be told, mine is too). When I ask Gellert what his motivation truly is for the tournament, he declares ‟women love men who are real men, which I am and will prove by winning this competition.”_

_I must admit it’s a shame he isn’t a bit older… The camera loves him too, as you can see on the right page of this article._

_Oh, and finally, the champion from Hogwarts' School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is Ablus Dumbledore._

_Ablus, who is a seven year student, looks shyly at me as we are conducting this interview. He won many prestigious prizes over the years, and I must admit he looks the part._

_Sadly,  I can’t make out most of his replies, since he is mumbling, the poor boy._

_If you remember correctly, his father has been sent to Azkaban a few years ago and the scandal is still overshadowing his whole family._

_If you want my advice (which I am sure that you do), the other champions should beware of him, because if the father is unstable, the son might be as well…_

_Finally, as a  great way to end this article, I must tell you that the First Task, from what I have heard from a very reliable source, is going to be very arduous and I am fairly sure our competitors won’t get away from it unharmed._

_It is scheduled to happen on the 1st of November and I will be there to cover it for you, my dear readers, with as much reliability as ever._

**_  
_ **

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PS: Margarita may or may not be related to Rita Skeeter XD
> 
> Next chapter, Gellert kisses someone (but who?)...
> 
> As always, comments and kudos make my day :D


	3. Love is in the air...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I did say Gellert was a bit of a slut in the tags… 😉  
> As always, English is not my first language Xxx

Truly, those pictures of him in the Daily Prophet were rather flattering, Gellert thought as he vaguely checked Margarita Lovelace’s article, the morning after he had been selected to represent his school at the Triwizard Tournament. The newspaper’s photographer had somehow managed to catch his good profile on every picture and on two of them, the author of the article was throwing him lusty looks every once in a while, which was slightly disconcerting. Gellert didn’t bother reading the text that surrounded the pictures though, because he believed newspapers were utter trash anyway and he was quite sure his great-aunt Bathilda, who basically was the only living relative he had left (well, except his father, of course, but since Gellert had sworn to never get back to his family’s estate or to communicate with him in any way, it was as if he was dead to him too) would certainly read it and send him an owl to congratulate him or to talk trash about the other two champions soon enough.

Not that those two made for some serious competition anyway…

The Beauxbâtons champion was a very pretty girl and she surely was more interested by her makeup and her look than by the competition in itself.

As soon as she would break a nail during one of the tasks, she would be out of the tournament.

As for the Hogwarts champion, he looked like a complete dork.

Dumbledore probably knew a lot of things and was probably able to quote some spells from his books by heart, but would he be able to cast them?

After all,  knowing spells and using them were two very different things.

 _No_ , Gellert thought, as he stared at his opponent one last time before he walked out of the Great Hall, Hogwarts wasn’t going to win this year.

Speaking of Hogwarts, the school was proving to be very boring to Gellert too.

First, the weather was way too warm for his taste and second, Mistress Volodya was always on his back.

The Hogwarts staff seemed to be always complaining about him (for whatever reasons, he couldn’t say), which was getting even more on his nerve. The last thing he needed was to lose his temper and to curse someone permanently, as it had almost happened at the end of the last school year, which was why he needed to focus on something else.

At least, his timetable was going to be modified so he would be able to attend some of the classes where he excelled the most at, like Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts, with the sixth or seventh years, which may finally intellectually challenge him.

Or not. He guessed time would tell.

At least, now that he knew that the First Task was coming up in less than a month, he would need to spend some extra time in the library to find out some useful spells and information that would help him in winning it more easily.

Which was why he needed to trigger his sight a bit. If he was able to catch a glimpse of what was to happen in the First Task, or to learn some key information about it, he would probably be able to earn more points.

After all, perfection was hard to achieve, but wasn’t impossible for one named Gellert Grindelwald.

As he got into his cabin aboard the Durmstrang ship, he quirked an eyebrow at his school mates, who were busy trying to communicate with the Giant Squid, which 1seemed to be quite fond of their ship’s figurehead, in a cacophonous mix of Russian, German and Polish.

Funny how common folks could entertain themselves with nothing, he thought as he closed the door of his cabin behind him.

***

‟I don’t want to burst your bubble, Doge, but since I’ve read Lovelace’s article, I am convinced that you should befriend the Durmstrang champion instead of spending all of your free time with our friend Dumbledore here, if you ever want to find yourself a girl,” Henry Potter declared before he elbowed Elphias in the ribs, while the other boy looked in the direction of the Slytherin table to study Grindelwald’s profile. ‟That guy clearly knows how to get some action. Just look at how the fifth year girls all seem on the verge of literally throwing their knickers at him...”

Alicia Sparrow, who was sitting in her usual spot next to Elphias, groaned out loud and dropped her fork on the table. ‟Can you please be less vulgar, Potter? If that wasn’t obvious enough, I am trying to eat.”

‟I’m just stating the truth here.” Potter claimed. He shrugged as he somehow managed to stuff three sausages in his mouth at once.

Elphias stared at both of them, before he went back to his thoughts. 

It was true he had been slightly disappointed by the fact that he hadn’t been picked to be the next Hogwarts champion, but at least he hadn’t brooded about it in his dormitory as Aberforth Dumbledore had done.

Plus, the fact his best friend had been selected (and who could have doubted this, really?) made him consider that being the best friend of the current champion could get him some bonus points with the ladies; something that didn’t seem like such a great plan now, as Potter had pointed out.

That Grindelwald really seemed to know his way with the fairer sex…

He continued to eat in silence, as Potter and Burrows bickered once more.

***

Albus was quite happy about the fact that the Goblet of Fire had picked him, among all others, to represent his school.

Of course, he had sent an owl to his mother first thing in the morning to tell her the news and he had tactfully avoided his brother, who would probably love to beat him to a pulp right now (not that there was anything new here), so far.

He thought the Daily Prophet article was hilarious (he should definitively consider changing his name to Ablus) and wasn’t upset about it, but he hoped his mother wouldn’t read it or that their neighbor, Bathilda Bagshot, a notorious gossiper, wasn’t going to tell her about it.

The least Kendra was remembered of what had happened with her husband, the better.

‟Are you upset about the article?”

Alicia stared at him with concern. It seemed her argument with Potter was over.

‟You know, journalists… ”

‟Most of her articles are blatant lies anyway,” chimed in Lexia Fleamont, as she purposely avoided Henry’s stare and sat down next to Alicia.

‟What are you going to do about the First Task?” Elphias asked, before he took a sip of his pumpkin juice.

‟I think we should head to the library as soon as the class is over, so we can find out some information about the last Triwizard Tournament. There probably are some books about it somewhere…”

 Henry shook his head with disgust. ‟You really have a thing for books, Dumbledore. You should really get your priorities sorted.”

Albus simply winked at Potter before he collected his things to get to class.

A few minutes later, Amaya Sanchez, the Gryffindor Head Girl, ran up to him just as he was getting inside the Charms’ classroom.

‟Albus, do you mind doing my patrol for me tonight? I’ve got a Quidditch meeting to attend. I’ll just go and find you once it’s over and take it from there.”

‟Of course. ”

‟Thanks! I’ll see you later, then!”

***

Vinda threw her copy of the Daily Prophet on the Ravenclaw table and made a displeased noise with her pretty mouth as some of her fellow classmates stared at her with puzzlement.

The Daily Prophet article was a complete piece of trash and that Margarita Lovelace would need to pay for it sooner than later.

As if she, Vinda Florence Rosier, was born to end up spending her life as a vulgar stay at home mom?

This was ridiculous!

First of all, she hated children. With their sticky hands and smelly everything, they were good for nothing except to ruin your clothes and your silhouette. Second, she had never been one to think about weddings and setting down. And third, it was women she was into and not men.

As she got up from her seat at the Ravenclaw table, the Durmstrang champion winked at her from his place at the Slytherin table, which made her shudder.

If that blonde idiot thought he could charm her that easily, well he was wrong.

The latter was being reprimanded for wearing his uniform wrong once more.

For some obscure reason, he was wearing two belts instead of one and his Headmistress was chastising him for it in front of everyone else, which truly was a mistake on her part. It was obvious that boy clearly had too much of an ego and all the attention she was giving him was only feeding it.

At least Grindelwald was good looking, unlike the Hogwarts champion with his whitish skin marred with freckles, his auburn going on red hair and his long nose.

On further thoughts, maybe she could seduce Grindelwald to find out some information about the First Task…

This could be fun.

She winked back at him as she walked out of the Great Hall.

After all, men were so easy to play with…

***

As Gellert was distractedly listening to what the Transfiguration teacher was telling them ( a simple spell he had been able to perform at barely six years old), he pondered on what he had come up with in his dreams last night.

He hadn’t managed to find out a lot about the First Task so far, but at least he knew who he should seek to get some answers.

Now, he just needed to meet said person and to find a way to get the answers he was looking for, which after all, was his specialty.

He was still pondering about how he was going to charm said person,  when someone pulled a chair next to him; a first since his third year.

It was Rosier, the Beauxbâtons champion.

She smiled pleasantly at him as she tilted her head on the side in a very seductive manner. ‟May I sit next to you?”

She batted her eyelashes at him before she leaned slightly against his shoulder as she sat down.

He flashed her a dazzling smile.

It seemed she already was under his spell, just as he had suspected it at first.

He had even less doubts about it now; he would easily win this competition.

***

Aberforth rolled his eyes at Grindelwald and Rosier, who were outrageously flirting with each other in the back of the class, while all the other girls of their year were staring at her with murder on their mind and most of the boys were reduced to drooling and babbling idiots.

Was he the only sane person left in this class?

‟Dumbledore, I bet you two galleons that those two will go together to the Yule ball,” Cygnus Black told him first thing after the class was over as he pointed to the new couple.

That rich git was always looking for ways to spend or earn money and he had the ability to get on Abe’s nerve every time.

Not that this was a very difficult feat to achieve…

‟And I bet you two galleons I’ll punch you in the face before next week if you don’t stop pestering me about them,” Aberforth replied on the same tone as Cygnus complained out loud that he was a spoilsport.

It was official, the fifth years were all bonkers over Grindelwald, but at least Aberforth knew better.

***

Albus was beginning to regret ever agreeing to do Amaya’s patrol.

You see, he was used to doing his usual rounds inside the school and knew which corners he should check;unlike right now, where he was feeling he was losing his time and freezing his hands off.

Amaya had warned him about the Greenhouse #4, a known make-out point,  but he had only found a toad that was merrily croaking its life away behind it.

It was way too cold for anyone to be outside anyway, the Head Boy thought, as he stared at the Black lake that was very still at this late hour.  

The night air was absolutely killing him as he walked toward his last stop, Hogwarts’ next famous snogging spot: the broom shed.

Without knocking because he was fairly sure no one would be in there anyway, he opened the door, just to be faced with a real snogging couple inside.

He cleared his throat, feeling slightly uncomfortable of interrupting them as he lighted his wand with a quick Lumos, and discovered who the faulty students were.

He wasn’t surprised to discover Davey O’Dowd, one of Ravenclaw’s most famous Quidditch players, and known heartthrob, locked in a passionate embrace with another student who was in a distressing state of undress.

He wasn’t prepared to discover who was with him though, because it was none other than the Durmstrang champion, Gellert Grindelwald.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHAT?! GELLERT, WHAT ARE YOU UP TO?! XD  
> As always, comments and kudos make my day :D


	4. Rumor has it

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The First Task is right around the corner… But first, let’s get back to our shameless Gellert :D  
> As always, English is not my first language Xxx

When he had woken up earlier this morning, Gellert was very pleased because he knew what he needed to do during the next few days in order to learn some key information about the First Task.  Indeed, among his customary cryptic dreams, he had had a clear vision of who he was supposed to find and question about the upcoming tournament.

He didn’t know how or why as of now, but Davey O’Dowd, a sixth year Ravenclaw, had all the answers he was looking for and Gellert’s only task was to find a way to get them.

Upon meeting the Quidditch player in the Great Hall during breakfast, Gellert had soon found out it would be easy to get as much info as possible from the dark haired boy.

Fairly easy.

You see, Gellert had a keen sense of observation and was very knowledgeable in the subtle art of analyzing body language; and the way O’Dowd had stared at him as if he was a delicious pastry on display among the Hogwarts buffet had been very telling.

Gellert had always known he was into boys and so had soon found out his mother and his great-aunt Bathilda. His father, on the other hand, hadn’t been pleased at all when he had discovered the truth a few years ago, which was one of the many reasons why the two weren’t on speaking terms anymore.

Later on, right after Charms, a well placed wink, a lingering touch on Davey’s arm and then on his back, an invasion of his personal space, a dazzling smile and a few subtle and unsubtle comments (he was quite proud of his ‟ save a broom, ride a Quidditch player” ) here and there in their conversation and O’ Dowd had dragged him to the broom shed right after dinner.

From there on, it had been fairly easy to ask the Quidditch player things about his whereabouts and his family in between kisses (who weren’t bad, but weren’t ranking high in Gellert’s list either).

He did after all have some experience and had picked a few tricks here and there since he had learned quite early at Durmstrang that sex was a very good way to manipulate people in order to get what you wanted in life quickly.

The blonde was pretty sure he was about to learn some interesting stuff at last when he unbuttoned his shirt and showed O’Dowd some more of his flawless skin, when the door of the shed had flown open and there had appeared the Hogwarts champion aka the dork, with a gust of cold wind.

Gellert stared at the Gryffindor Head Boy with annoyance. Who was he to interrupt their making out anyway? ‟ Are you going to stand there like a blushing idiot for long or what? We’ve got some things to get back to, if you don’t mind. Haven’t you ever heard of privacy?”

Honestly, for a genius, that boy was incredibly dense.

He was about to push the idiot out and to close the door, when he turned to venture a glance at that tall dumbass of O’Dowd, who looked sickly.

It seemed the latter wasn’t that willing anymore to keep up their making out and that Gellert wouldn’t get the answers he was looking for today.

Quite frankly, O’Dowd’s attitude was a real turn off anyway.

***

Well, for a surprise, it really wasn’t a good one.

What exactly was Albus supposed to do about this? In all of his years as a Prefect, he had never been faced with this. It was one thing to report a couple that involved a witch and a wizard to the headmaster, but what was he supposed to do when both students were male?

They didn’t send wizards and witches who were guilty of loving a same-sex person in Azkaban anymore, since the law had changed about 10 years ago, but it still wasn’t very well accepted among the wizarding community.

The muggle-borns were particularly averse to this, which was to be expected, considering how muggles were dealing with this occurrence.

Albus was very knowledgeable in these matters, because he too was harboring similar feelings for males,  but if there was one thing his mother had taught him very well, it was that secrecy had to be kept at all costs.

Not that he had ever dated anyone anyway, which could have incriminated him, but his eyes had wandered now and then on nice boys and the thought of kissing one or another had crossed his minds on a few occasions lately.

Davey seemed to be on the verge of tears as he tried to move as far away from Grindelwald as possible in the broom shed, which wasn’t very far considering how tiny that space was in the first place. ‟Please Dumbledore, don’t tell anything to Headmaster Black. If they ever learn about this, my parents are going to kill me, ” the Quidditch player pleaded as Gellert rolled his eyes and threw him a disgusted look.

‟Just kill them first and you won’t get any problem about it, ” the latter commented in an undertone as he began to untangle his curls. He then glanced at Albus as he began to put some order into his clothes.‟What are you going to do about this anyway, Dumbledore? Are you going to take some house points from us? I’m not even a student here...”

Albus kept a neutral expression on his face as his brain studied the situation furthermore.

If he kept silent about this, surely O’Dowd wouldn’t tell a soul either and it probably wasn’t in Grindelwald’s best interest to talk about this too.

Well, that’s what he would do in his place, but the Durmstrang student had quite the reputation already and he may think this would benefit his rebellious image. A classic.

Albus decided at last that he would keep this a secret. After all, there was no need to turn Grindelwald into an enemy already before the tournament had even begun and he had nothing against Davey either.‟Don’t worry O’Dowd, I-”

‟WHAT IS GOING ON HERE EXACTLY?” loudly asked a suspicious voice, which startled all three of them.

Of course, it was at that precise moment that Amaya had finished her meeting and had shown up to finish her round. In a flash, she took in the situation before her and with a disgusted look on her face, fled so fast from the scene that none of the boys even had the time to open their mouths and babble something in their defense.

Well, so much for secrecy and solidarity…

 ‟You Brits really don’t know a thing about fun.” Muttered Gellert darkly as Davey really began to sob in the background.

***

‟Thank you, miss Sanchez. I’m glad you came here to seek counsel and told me all about this at once.”

‟It was my duty to report this, sir,” valiantly replied Amaya before she left the Headmaster’s office feeling her mission had been accomplished.

Black was in the middle of a Wizarding chess game with Mistress Volodya and she quirked an eyebrow at him as he walked back to their table with a frown on his face.

Something seemed odd...

Black cleared his throat as he sat down. ‟I don’t know how to break this to you Nikita, but you see, your student-”

‟Let me guess…Grindelwald fought with someone?”

Black shook his head as a simple answer.

‟He stole something?”

‟No”

‟He invoked a demon?”  There was an awkward pause as Black thought about this turn of event.  That Grindelwald really was trouble.

The headmistress had a twisted smile on her face as she spoke. ‟ Did he kill someone? ”

Black shook his head vehemently. ‟No, he was caught kissing another male student earlier this evening.”

Volodya poured them a glass of vodka each. ‟Ah, well, and here I thought I would finally be able to expel him this time around.” She sighed deeply before she continued their game of chess. ‟ This isn’t news to me, Phineas. He’s been kissing boys all over the school since last year.”

Black seemed extremely surprised by her answer. ‟And this isn’t reason enough to throw him out?”

Volodya shrugged another time as she poured herself a second glass of alcohol. Vodka was always the answer. ‟Well this isn’t illegal and there’s no need to worry about a student ending up pregnant in this particular situation.  Thank Babayaga for this!”

Black pushed his glass aside and poured himself a cup of tea instead as he tried to think about his next move.

What kind of twisted school was Durmstrang, exactly, when it was permitted for boys to be making out with each other?

***

When Elphias got down from his dormitory that morning, he was met by a strange sight. Many students were whispering excitedly, while some girls were crying desperately here and there in the Great Hall.

‟Merlin, who died during the night?” he asked as he sat down at his usual spot at the Gryffindor table.

‟Grindelwald’s heterosexuality,” quickly declared Potter as he heavily buttered both sides of his toast. ‟Haven’t you heard the news?”

‟Heard what?” Elphias frowned with puzzlement before he ventured a curious look at his best friend, but it seemed that Albus was too engrossed in his runes textbook to participate in their conversation.

Potter took a bite of his toast before he went on. ‟Last night, Davey O’Dowd was found in the broom shed with none other than the Durmstrang champion, Gellert Grindelwald. ”

Alicia waggled her eyebrows as she joined their conversation. ‟I bet they weren’t playing a game of exploding snaps in there.”

Potter flashed her a salacious grin. ‟Nope. Some say they were both fully naked in there, while others claim-” he looked left and right before he added in a conspiratorial tone.‟ That they were doing it. ”

There was a shocked silence as other Gryffindors listened in on their conversation. Gossips were always popular in the Great Hall, more so when the people involved were two very good looking guys.

‟Is he going to be expelled?” Elphias asked, still in shock about learning this, as he tried to locate one of the two boys in the room.

Of course, they weren’t there. Truth be told, they probably were hidden by now.

‟No,  apparently there aren’t any rules forbidding that kind of things around here anymore.” Potter shrugged.  ‟Which means we can freely bone whoever we want, wherever we want Fleamont, if you ever are interested.”

Lexia made a rude gesture in his direction as Aberforth, back from his brooding, chimed in on their conversation. ‟That is truly disgusting though. I can’t believe the parents’ board won’t do a thing about this.”

‟It sure is!” Elphias declared as he began to fill his plate with various pastries, while the others were still gossiping about last night’s event. Until Amaya Sanchez showed up in tears and sat next to them, that is.

They all stared at her with shock before Potter, unable to contain himself furthermore, began to laugh uncontrollably. ‟Merlin, Amaya! That’s one hell of a mustache you’ve got going there. You’ve got more facial hair than Bulstrode and that’s saying something.”

It seemed someone had cursed her, but as to whom and why, it was to remain a mystery. Of course, Albus knew all about it, but the less he was involved in the matter, the better.

***

Gellert had a pile of books placed precariously next to him on the table he was occupying in the library as he was trying to find things about past Triwizard Tournaments and he was very much annoyed by the fact that Dumbledore had already borrowed most of the books on the topic barely a few hours before he did.

He threw the redhead his trademark offended look as the latter smiled back sheepishly at him from the other side of the room.  

Truly, what an idiot that boy was, with his innocent little smile and his piercing blue eyes. Oh and those annoying freckles and-

Gellert was interrupted in his analysis of everything he hated about Dumbledore’s look, by a whispering group of fourth years, who were no doubt gossiping about last night’s event.

Gellert looked darkly at them, which shut them up a little.  This was all the better for them, because he would have no remorse in cursing them with ungracious facial hair, just like he had done with Amaya Sanchez,  before he went back to his book, just to be interrupted a few seconds later by none other than Vinda Rosier, who picked one of the book from the pile and flipped through it.

Wasn’t the library supposed to be a quiet space to work in?

‟I know exactly what you are going to say,” Gellert began, before he sighed loudly.  ‟Yes,  I did try to seduce you in order to find out some information about the First Task… And to be honest,  I had no intention of really taking you out on a date.  Don’t take this too personally, but you really aren’t my type Rosier.”

‟I must admit I did the same with you,” Vinda replied as she placed the book back on the table and picked another one instead. ‟ It takes some guts to out oneself in front of the others like you did last night.”

‟Why should I hide that part of me?” Gellert gave her a funny look before he glared back at the group of gossipers. ‟By the way, if you’d like, you can still try your luck with O’Dowd. He knows things about the tournament. Although I hope size doesn’t really matter to you, because trust me there isn’t much to play with down there, if you get what I mean.”

Vinda smirked upon hearing this. ‟Duly noted, but I have better taste than this, thank you very much. ”

Gellert shrugged before he went back to his book.‟ By the way, I still think you won’t stand more than a few seconds in this competition. Maybe you should resign from it while you still can?”

Vinda let out a crystalline laugh.‟And I think you’ll be crying big fat ugly tears before the First Task is over, Grindelwald, and I’ll be extremely pleased to watch your melt down”, she declared before she slowly swayed out of the room with feline grace without even throwing him a last glance as she left the room.

***

By the end of the week, Amaya was still sporting her mustache around Hogwarts and it seemed no one knew how to lift the strong curse that was inflicted on her.  Even worse, the more one tried to tamper with the mustache, the bigger and hairier it grew.

It seemed Headmaster Black was on the case, but so far, he had failed to corner the culprit, who Mistress Volodya had no doubt was Grindelwald.

She still lacked actual proofs to incriminate him though and was in a very bad mood, scaring first years students left and right, for the remainder of the week.

There was also a rumor that she had drank Hogwarts’ whole supply of vodka, which surely didn’t help in the matter either.

On Friday morning, the seventh years Gryffindors and Ravenclaws, more than happy that the week was finally coming to an end,  were quite surprised to see the infamous  Durmstrang bad boy introduced in their Potions class.

Professor Viridian didn’t say much about it to his astonished class, except that Gellert would be with them until the Durmstrang delegation was going to leave in January.

 It seemed the fifth year student had some impressive potion brewing skills, but the teacher seemed to highly doubt that fact.  

He gave his new student an unimpressed nod as the blonde sat down as far away from him and from the front of the room as possible.

Viridian then cleared his throat and continued his lesson on the Pepperup  Potion, before he began to pair up his students for the actual potion brewing part of his class.

He had just paired Amaya with Elphias, when he turned toward Albus, who was still busy writing down notes about today’s potion. ‟ Dumbledore, why don’t you work with Grindelwald and show that foreigner how we do this here in Hogwarts? ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We shall see how this Potions class goes...
> 
> Comments and kudos make my day :D


	5. The Infamous Hogwarts’ Interhouse Halloween Party

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woot woot, here’s the biggest chapter yet :D
> 
> As always, English is not my first language Xxxx

To say Gellert wasn’t pleased by Viridian’s decision of partnering him up with Albus was an understatement.

The Durmstrang boy was literally fuming.

How dared that small bald man pair him up with such an unworthy work partner?

To silently protest against his teacher’s decision, Gellert didn’t leave his seat in the back of the room to join Albus as Viridian had asked him to and kept on doodling in his notebook instead.

In the end, Albus had to pack his things and to join Gellert at his table, which was a pity, really, since his things were already set up in order to brew some Pepperup at his table in the first place.

What a waste of time…

Albus cleared his throat as he placed his textbook and his cauldron on Gellert’s table, since it seemed the latter wasn’t going to get his stuff out of his bag, and bumped Gellert’s right shoulder in the process. ‟Do you want to prepare the ingredients or would you rather add them to the cauldron and stir?”

Gellert continued to draw for a few more minutes before he finally acknowledged the other’s presence. ‟Listen Dumbledore, don’t take this too personally, but I already hate you.” He sighed dramatically, something he clearly enjoyed doing, before he went on.‟I should maybe tell Viridian I am allergic to redheads. That way, he’ll need to pair me up with someone else.”

With that being said, Gellert waited a few seconds before he glanced at Albus, a nasty grin on his face,  as he expected that the latter would be slightly annoyed or angry at him by now.

Was he surprised though to see that Albus, instead of looking offended like any decent person would be in this particular situation, was giggling instead. ‟This is the first time I have ever heard of this specific type of allergy. You won’t enjoy your stay in the UK if that truly is the case.”

By now, Gellert was more than baffled by the other’s reaction and he quirked an eyebrow at Albus as he studied him more attentively.

Maybe Lovelace had been right about her assumptions in her last article and Albus indeed wasn’t one to be tempered with after all…

‟I don’t need your help with this potion. I can easily do it with both of my eyes closed.”

‟Of course.” Albus shrugged as he flashed Gellert another one of his annoying smiles. The kind of smile  that made his blue eyes sparkle. ‟ I won’t need to remind you that you only need one Bicorn horn to prepare it and not three, then.”

‟Stop being such an annoying know-it-all, will you. They simply fell out from my bag.”Gellert retorted with annoyance as he only grabbed one of the horns and quickly discarded the others.

_Of course, this was a complete lie._

Gellert hadn’t paid any attention to what Viridian had said during the whole class, but any idiot could brew potions anyway.

The fact Dumbledore managed to do so was a good example of this.

‟My apologies, but I’ve just assumed that since you haven’t written down any notes in your notebook, you might need to be reminded of which ingredients are needed to brew the Pepperup potion,” Albus flashed him another annoying smile as he shoved his own textbook full of  tidy notes in Gellert’s face. ‟You are fairly good at drawing though. You seem to particularly like the Deathly Hallows?”

Gellert was quite surprised by this and stared at the other boy with curiosity as he sliced the Bicorn horn in five equal parts. ‟You know about them?”

‟Well, The Tale of the Three Brothers used to be my favorite fairytale when I was little. I used to ask my mom to read it to me all the time. ”

Gellert was pretty sure his heart had stopped beating for a good three seconds when he heard this, because it was the first time in his short existence that someone had  actually recognized the Hallows’ symbol, but he somehow managed to hide that fact and to keep his composure.

‟Well, once I’ll have won the Triwizard Tournament, because we both know that I will,” Gellert began, before he paused and  then smirked at Albus, who said nothing, but nodded as he added some more ingredients in their cauldron,‟I’ll find the three Hallows and will become the master of death.”

Albus was prevented from answering anything by Viridian (and truly, what was one supposed to reply to that?), who was walking around the room and checking on his students’ work. The teacher loudly cleared his throat right behind Gellert, who somehow managed not to jump out of surprise.

‟I said you needed to crush that Bicorn horn, not to slice it,” Viridian barked before he shook his head with disapproval and walked away from them without even giving Gellert a second glance.

The latter eyed Viridian darkly and muttered something incomprehensible under his breath, but let it be said that there was no need to speak German to understand that what he had just uttered was very rude.

After a few more minutes of working in silence, where more Bicorn horns were crushed than were actually needed, Albus tried to get their conversation going.

‟Just to make things clear between us, I was not going to tell Headmaster Black about your little misadventure in the broom shed.”

‟Of course you were not going to say anything about it to Black,” Gellert finally dropped the crushed horn in their boiling cauldron.  ‟It would have been quite stupid of you to actually risk outing yourself while doing so in the first place.”

Albus’ eyes grew wide, the only tell-tale sign that he actually had processed what Gellert had just said. ‟What? No, I-”

‟You really aren’t subtle at all, by the way…” Gellert added as Albus made an annoying noise with his tongue.

What was he supposed to reply to this anyway?  

They spent the rest of the class in silence as both seemed very annoyed by the other.

They bumped shoulders and hands on many occasions, since Gellert was right-handed and Albus was left-handed, but other than that it went fine. Or, actually, it went as fine as it could be when you were working in the close proximity of your newest enemy.

Finally, five minutes before the class was over, Albus was just finishing to stir the content of their cauldron two times clockwise and then three times counterclockwise, like Viridian had told them to, when their potion suddenly changed color…

Which wasn’t a surprise at first because it was supposed to, but instead of turning a beautiful purple tint like Viridian had said it would do, their potion turned a weird greenish color as it boiled over and some of it fell on the table.

‟Well, congratulations! It’s a blob!” Gellert sarcastically commented as the _thing_ that had just fallen from their cauldron began to wobble on the table as if it was alive. ‟It looks as ugly as you, by the way.”

Suddenly, their potion changed color once more and the bottom of Albus’ cauldron melted as the potion burned a deep hole in the table.

The leaking potion missed Gellert’s left foot by a hair as the latter abruptly got up and Viridian, who looked extremely displeased by what was going on in his class, rushed up to their table.

‟I knew a fifth year had nothing to do in my class!” he hissed as he made their blob disappear with one swift wand movement. ‟Grindelwald, detention; tonight! Brace yourself, because that floor will need a good scrubbing.”

Gellert was absolutely scandalized. ‟Me!? What about Dumbledore? He’s responsible for that mess as well!”

Viridian seemed even more outraged by the fact that Gellert had dared to retort back than by the mess he had caused. ‟ _You_ clearly messed with Mr. Dumbledore’s potion, young man! Make it two nights for your impertinence, then.”

‟Sorry _sir_ , I’m afraid I won’t be able to do so, ”  Gellert replied with much more attitude this time around, as he got up, whipped around and dramatically walked out of the classroom,  snuffing all the candles with a simple snap of his fingers and slamming the door on his way out.

For a few seconds, the only sound that could be heard in the classroom was the tapping of his boots reverberating on the corridor’s floor, before Viridian let out a panicked wail.

You see, the latter was absolutely terrified of the dark since something obscure had happened to him when he was still a young boy, and since the potions’ classroom had no windows...

It seemed Viridian had completely forgotten he was a wizard and that he could use a simple Lumos to light up the room too, as he quickly ran out of the room and left his bemused students behind.

‟Well, that Grindelwald’s got style…” Potter declared as the others, in shock, stared at him with open mouths.

And indeed, _Grindelwald did_.

***

In the end, Gellert did both detentions because Mistress Volodya somehow forced him to, which kept him busy for the first part of the week.

How she had done it though, no one knew…

It wasn’t clear if Gellert wasn’t that skilled in potions or if he had deliberately messed with Albus’ Pepperup Potion in the first place, but since that incident, both champions had ended up sitting at the same table in the library for a few nights in a row.

Most of the time, they remained silent and were sitting on opposite sides of the table; but still, sometimes they exchanged a few words, which meant they probably were on friendlier terms by now.

After all, it wasn’t everyday you somehow managed to create life with a same-sex work partner…

Elphias thought the Durmstrang student probably felt lonely, a bit like Aberforth, who was always chiming in on their conversations, while Potter had declared that Gellert was probably trying to intimidate Albus in one way or the other.

Vinda Rosier, on the other hand, had remained as far away from both champions as was possible, which was deemed by most to be a very wise decision.

On Thursday evening, the two were once more in the library. Elphias was working on his Muggle Studies homework, while both Gellert and Albus were looking at books from the restricted section and Alicia Sparrow was trying to find spells that could be helpful to her friend.

The First Task was scheduled in less than a week from now and it seemed to her that Albus hadn’t done much to get ready for it.

Truth be told, he was probably waiting to do so at the last minute; something that was rather typical with boys.

Albus closed his book and stretched his back as he ventured a glance at his opponent, who was still busy reading his own book. ‟What I’ve learned from reading all of those books is that Durmstrang is extremely cold in the winter and that we are probably going to face some type of  magical creature that will want to kill us in one way or another during the First Task.”

‟Too bad for that poor creature; I’m not very good at dying.”Gellert commented from the other side of the table.

‟For a second I thought you were going to say you were allergic to painful deaths, ” Albus smugly replied as he looked over Elphias’ shoulder to see how his friend’s homework was going; which probably wasn’t well, considering the face he pulled.

Gellert didn’t even bother to reply to this, but smirked at Alicia, who rolled her eyes before she looked around the room and discovered that someone seemed to be studying them instead of their book.

‟That tall Beauxbâtons guy over there is staring at us,” she whispered as she looked at the French boy more attentively.

Albus stared at the latter with curiosity, but the boy didn’t seem to mind his inquiring gaze either.

The French had silky brown almost black hair, brown eyes, a proud nose and seemed to be way over 6 feet tall.  It was safe to assume that he probably was in sixth or seventh year.

Elphias frowned and pushed his homework aside as an idea struck him. ‟What if he’s spying for Rosier?”

Gellert unsubtly turned around to see what was going on and flashed a cocky grin to the French boy, who quickly averted his gaze and began to madly flip through his book; which Alicia noted, was upside down. ‟Or he’s crushing on one of us. I do like tall boys…”

Elphias seemed shocked upon hearing Gellert’s comment.

Clearly, his poor ears weren’t ready to hear such wicked things...

Alicia giggled out loud as she picked her stuff up and glanced at the clock that was at the library’s entrance.  Grindelwald’s snarky comments were starting to grow on her. ‟Alright good sirs, it’s high time we all headed out to bed. After all, there are only 36 hours left before the First Task.”

Gellert yawned as he too began to pick his stuff up. ‟ And roughly 35 hours before my splendid victory.”

***

_Congratulations fellow schoolmate,_

_you have been deemed worthy enough to be cordially invited to this year’s **Infamous Hogwarts’ Interhouse Halloween Party (I.H.I.H.P.),** that will be held this Friday the 31th of October. The celebrations will begin at 10 and the party’s (secret) location will be enclosed to you via the next owl._

_Don’t show this message to an adult, or else, you’ll feel our wrath._

_-Hogwarts’ most awesome students_

‟Is this really what I think it is?” Henry’ s eyes were shining with a manic glow as he stared at the tiny piece of parchment Albus had just remembered he had received this morning. ‟Is this truly an invitation to the I.H.I.H.P.?”

‟The what? ” Elphias frowned at their bespectacled classmate as the three friends were on their way to the Gryffindor Common Room, their last class of the day, Herbology, having just ended.

‟The Infamous Hogwarts’ Interhouse Halloween Party.” Henry’s voice was shaking.‟ Only the finest and most popular students usually get an invite to this legendary event.”

Elphias shrugged. ‟I have never heard of it. ”

‟No wonder why, Doge, ” Aberforth commented as the three friends walked through the Fat Lady’s portrait and into the common room as the latter was once more eavesdropping on his big brother’s conversation.

Henry glared at Aberforth as he, Albus and Elphias sat down on one of the worn out couch that was in the room, while Aberforth gave him the stink eye in return, walked past them and then went directly to his dormitory.

‟I’ve never been invited to such a party before. It’s after bedtime hours too. I don’t think I’ll-” Albus began as Elphias seemed slightly panicked by his answer and Henry vehemently shook his head.

‟Think about it for a few seconds, Albus! It could be a nice way to meet new people and to improve your social status,” Henry said tentatively as Elphias nodded in the background. ‟Doge could maybe even find a decent girlfriend there.”

Elphias nodded even more at these words as Albus shrugged and agreed to go to the party in the end.

‟I wish I could go there too,” Henry declared a few minutes later, as their conversation drifted off to another topic.

‟What a shame Dumbledore’s only allowed to bring one person to that party and that person isn’t you, right?” Lexia Fleamont declared from the other side of the room.

Potter threw her an offended look as he grabbed one of the many decorative cushions that were on the couch and aimed at her head with it.  Of course, he ended up hitting Malcolm McLaggen directly on the nose instead, which resulted in a general pillow fight.

***

On Friday night, when they finally reached the Room of Requirement where the I.H.I.H.P. was being held, Elphias was literally bouncing off the walls from excitement.

It was crazy, really, to think that because his best friend had been chosen as Hogwarts’ champion he got to attend such an awesome party.

He had tried to dress his best and had even used a spell to hide his greenish pockmarks, something he didn’t usually bother to do.

There was no doubt about it, tonight was going to be his lucky night!

The room was decorated with live bats and flying pumpkins, instruments were charmed to play famous songs in the background, there were various types of food and candies placed on a table in the left corner of the room (without any doubts, the kitchens had been raided), there were a few suspicious looking drinks here and there around the room and in the back, there were some very comfy looking couches where couples were shockingly already making out.

The Head Boy side of Albus was shocked of seeing all of this at once, while his teenage self was more than pleased to be breaking the rules for once.

After all, it was close to 10.30 by now and he wasn’t in bed.

_He was living._

There were about 30 guests at the party and most of them were sixth and seventh year students, as was to be expected.

Some Beauxbâtons students were in attendance as well (Albus even saw Vinda Rosier, who looked as charming as ever, chat with the Slytherin Quidditch captain Emily Avery in one corner of the room) and of course, Gellert Grindelwald was there too, surrounded by girls. One of them had unbuttoned her shirt and was clearly trying to get him to peek down her impressive cleavage, something that did not seem to be very effective so far.

It seemed as though the poor girl might be the the only one in all of Hogwarts who hadn’t received the memo that Grindelwald was into boys and not into girls.

Everywhere Albus looked, everyone seemed to be having fun and was good looking; until-

‟What in Merlin’s name are you doing here? You don’t even have any real friends!”

‟I could ask you the same! What are _you_ doing here?” Aberforth retorted as he gave his older brother the stink eye. ‟Cygnus Black dragged me along. That rich idiot gets invited to everything, Merlin knows why.”

Elphias seemed quite surprised by Aberforth’s presence to the party too, but soon he and Albus were surrounded by a bunch of Hogwarts students who were more than happy to discuss with their appointed champion and Abe was forgotten.

A few hours and a few drinks later, some of the seventh years had declared that it would be fun to do some dares; a game that always happens at one point or the other in a party and usually doesn’t end too well.

If the dares were quite funny at first, things quickly escalated as the level of alcohol consumed by everyone raised.

Even Elphias had managed to get a hug and a kiss from a Beauxbâtons girl at this point, which was saying something.

Someone asked Vinda to take her shoes and her socks off and to flex her toes, which truth be told had been very very weird in itself, when the weirdest of the weirdest thing happened…

‟Speaking of interhouse solidarity, what about interschool solidarity? Grindelwald and Dumbledore should kiss!” A Hufflepuff fifth year Albus didn’t remember the name of suggested, as Elphias’ eyes grew wide and most of the guests seemed to find the idea extremely funny.

The cleavage girl that was literally glued to Gellert’s side for a good part of the evening didn’t seem too pleased by that suggestion though and Albus thought he should probably voice his opinion and protest about it too, but it was already too late.

Grindelwald, who probably was hammered by now, quickly grabbed him by the shoulder, spun him around and crashed his lips against his for what could only be described as an Earth-shattering kiss which may or may not have involved tongues.

Some students cheered, while others seemed quite shocked by the fact that the kiss had actually occurred.

Cygnus Black groaned out loud.  He clearly had lost another bet.‟Damn, I guess you can have your 10 galleons now, Abe!”

Albus blinked a few times as Gellert quickly pulled back and smirked at everyone as he tried to ignore the fact that his Sight had been triggered by the kiss and that he was officially drunk to the point of passing out.

‟That was very disturbing to watch, but at least I am richer by now,” commented Aberforth, ever the pragmatic, as he looked curiously at his older brother, who was just standing there, unblinking. ‟Are you alright? Apart from the fact that you’ve been kissed by that Durmstrang git, that is.”

Elphias seemed concerned too as he left the Beauxbâtons girl and literally appeared at his best friend’s side.

Albus wiped his mouth with the back of his hand before he cleared his throat. ‟Never better. I was just thinking that I should probably be getting back to bed by now. After all, the First Task is tomorrow...”

And with that being said, he realized how tired he really was.  Soon, he and Elphias bid their farewells to some of the guests.

In the end, it truly was a miracle that they somehow managed to get back to their common room without being caught.

***

Elphias had been snoring for a very long time already when Albus turned over for the fiftieth time in his bed.

At first, he had told himself he simply couldn’t fall asleep because he was too nervous about tomorrow’s task… After all, Headmaster Black had said that the Triwizard Tournament was supposed to be extremely challenging and perilous, so it was simply natural to be slightly worried about things going wrong and possibly dying, _right_?

Then, he had told himself it was because he needed to rethink about the strategy he was going to use during the said task. If he indeed needed to fight against a magical beast, he probably should have listed a few spells that would be useful, something Alicia had told him to do from the start.

An hour later, he persuaded himself that it was because it was either too cold or too hot in the dormitory that he wasn’t able to sleep properly.

Then, he came to the conclusion that the new drapes around his bed were too ugly for him to sleep a wink and he wondered if he should set them on fire once more, but decided against it in the end.

Finally, at around 3 in the morning, he admitted to himself that what was keeping him awake was that stupid kiss that had occurred at the party earlier this evening.

Maybe Albus had read too many romance novels at this point, a fact Aberforth loved to make fun of, or it was because he was hallucinating things, but deep down, he already knew he was already in too deep.

Grindelwald was arrogant, too confident for his own good, devilishly good looking, manipulative, absolutely charming and loved to break Hogwarts’ rules one at a time with as much drama as possible… And Albus had to admit that he found all of those things very attractive.

Too attractive.

Was he really falling in love with one of his opponents?

One who seemed to hate him nonetheless?

Merlin, how stupid was he?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The First Task will be in the next chapter!
> 
> Comments and kudos make my day :D


	6. He’s just a boy and he’s on fire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that’s it, we have finally reached the First Task! :D  
> As always, English is not my first language Xxx

When Albus woke up the morning after the Halloween party, he was surprised to see that it was already close to ten and that he had officially managed to skip breakfast: a first since he had begun to attend Hogwarts.

In the bunk bed on his right, Elphias was still snoring loudly, which wasn’t a surprise, _really,_ since Albus was usually the one who woke his best friend up in the morning.

Close to the door, Henry was trying to fix his unruly hair as he studied his reflection in the mirror.

Let it be noted that he was doing as much noise as possible while doing so, which was probably why Albus had woken up in the first place.

The latter yawned and was more than happy to discover that he didn’t feel sick at all.

Truth be told, Albus hadn’t drunk that much last night, but since he had close to zero tolerance to alcohol, it wouldn’t have been that surprising if he did. After all, the only time he had had a gulp of Firewhiskey in the last few years had been when his aunt Honoria had come to visit them at Christmas when they still lived in Mould-on-the-Wold, which seemed to be eons ago.

‟Sorry if I have woken you up,” Henry declared as soon as he saw that Albus was stirring, even though he didn’t seem sorry at all. ‟There are only two hours left before the First Task and I thought you might like to eat something first. I’m also positively dying to know how last night’s party went.”

Albus gulped. Of course Potter wanted to know how the party had been.

Well…

The good thing was that with the First Task scheduled in just a few hours, Albus didn’t have much time left to think about last night.

Not that anything of importance had occurred... If you put aside the fact that Grindelwald’s tongue had touched his.

Which was no big deal at all, right?

Truth be told, now that he was sober, Albus was fairly sure that he had somehow accentuated his feelings for Grindelwald.

After all, it wasn’t because Gellert’s drunken kiss had been his first (well, apart from that awkward time when he had lost a bet with Kitty Hawthorne and had to kiss Mary McGarthy in the barn, which had been a very unpleasant experience he would like to forget completely), that he needed to fall in love with that boy!

Albus flashed a quick smile to Henry before he all but fled to the bathroom in order to shower and to prevent the other from questioning him furthermore about last night.

As he turned the shower off a few minutes later, he heard Elphias curse profusely in the other room.

It seemed Potter hadn’t been too kind in waking him up.

Ten minutes later, the three boys were sitting in the Great Hall, which was almost empty at this hour of the day, when a kind house-elf brought some food to their table.

Albus found he wasn’t very hungry this morning, but Elphias, like a doting mother, filled his plate with a little of everything anyway. All the while, Henry drummed with his fingers on the table as he impatiently waited to learn more details about the infamous I.H.I.H.P.

A few minutes later, he gave both Elphias and Albus a pointed look and cleared his throat. ‟ So, how was last night?”

As if on cue, Lexia  Fleamont and Alicia Sparrow, who were working on their Charms essay at the far end of the Gryffindor table, moved from their actual spot to sit closer to them.

It seemed they wanted to learn more details about the mysterious party too…

‟It was okay,” Albus cautiously replied.

‟Okay? It was bloody brilliant, you mean! There were alcoholic drinks and food and music and everyone looked hot.” Elphias waggled his eyebrows. ‟ A French girl even kissed me.”

‟Ooooh, it does sound like it was a lot of fun! It’s a pity you weren’t invited, Potter.” Lexia smirked in Henry’s direction as the latter rolled his eyes.  ‟Did you get a kiss as well, Albus?”

‟He did, but you’ll never guess who kissed him…” Elphias began as Albus almost choked on the piece of toast he had finally decided to eat.

Why was everyone being so nosy right now? He tried to kick Elphias in the knee in order to shut him up, but missed him and kicked the table instead.

He was fairly sure he had just broken his big toe, when Elphias, unaware of his best friend’s inner turmoil, went on. ‟Listen, that kiss was the weirdest thing ever! There was a wild game of dares going on and Albus ended up being kissed by Grindelwald, beca-”

Henry seemed absolutely scandalized. ‟ What? I can’t believe you’ve let that German git shove his tongue down your throat! ”

Alicia frowned. ‟Isn’t Grindelwald from Austria?”

‟I thought he was from Hungary?” chimed in Lexia.

Henry groaned out loud. ‟Who cares? He’s from somewhere in Europe and now that we all know that he likes to do it from behind, this kiss sounds even more wrong.”

The four Gryffindors all turned their attention back toward Albus, who thank Merlin, was saved from pursuing that awkward conversation by Black, who had just come up to their table.

The redhead had never been gladder to see the headmaster than at that time and he swiftly got up and followed him suit. His face was still burning as he left the Great Hall, but he could still blame this on his pre-First Task jitters, right?

***

When Gellert woke up the morning of the First Task he was so hungover, he wasn’t able to move.

His head was pounding so much, he thought his brain must have been turned into liquid by now.

At least no one was sleeping next to him, which was an improvement compared to the last time.

He really should remember to drink more responsibly the next time, but Dumbledore had unexpectedly been at the party and Gellert had felt as though the latter had been watching him, judging him even, during the whole evening and drinking had seemed to be a good solution at that time, because Gellert didn’t know how to act around that boy.

Which was infuriating and becoming a real problem.

Now that Gellert thought about it, how in Merlin’s name had he managed to get back to his cabin on the Durmstrang’s ship without falling in the Black Lake in the process, he honestly had no clue…

_No freaking clue at all._

He threw up twice next to his bed before he curled into a ball in his blanket and felt miserable for a few more minutes. If his great-aunt Bathilda had been here, she would have made fun of him for being that sick, but at least she would have brewed him her miraculous but foul-tasting potion and he would already feel better by now.

Then, as he tried to drag himself to the shower because there was no way he was going to show up in front of everyone with vomit in his hair, memories from last night flooded his mind.

At first,  he remembered the girl who had desperately tried to drag him to her bed and who had spent her evening at his side. It was funny how he always ended up being such a chick magnet when he had no interest in the members of the fairer sex to begin with…

Then, he remembered the dares he had done. Some had been downright funny, while others had been very awkward.

Then, he remembered _it_ ; it being his stupid kiss with Dumbledore. The thing he had drank so much to prevent in the first place and that had happened anyway.

Truth be told, on a scale of one to ten, that kiss was barely reaching a four.  And a low four at that.

There was no way Gellert was ever going to kiss Dumbledore once more. Nope. Not in this lifetime, because that kiss had triggered his Sight.

Gellert had felt a curious feeling of warmth and the possibility of a shared future with the redhead as blurry pictures had succeeded themselves into his mind. Was it love too that he had Seen and felt as his lips were crashing against the Hogwarts champion’s?  Honestly, this was the scariest thing that had ever happened to him.  Love was dangerous and he was going to remain away from it as much as possible, thank you very much.

After all, what good had love done to his poor mother in the end?

Gellert somehow managed to shower and to drag himself back to bed without being sick once more, which truly was a feat, when Mistress Volodya walked into his room, without knocking, of course, a few minutes-or was it a few hours?-later.

The headmistress didn’t seem too impressed by his current state, but seemed to be expecting it, as she handed him a potion, which tasted exactly like his great-aunt Bathilda’s.

Truth be told, Volodya was quite used to his attitude, his quirks and his stupidity by now.

She also needed him to win this afternoon’s task, because her school’s reputation was at stake, which may explain the sudden kindness she was showing him right now.

What an odd day…

***

Albus was feeling better now that his friends couldn’t question him anymore about the now infamous kiss that had happened last night and that Headmaster Black had finally let him be.

The latter had almost begged him on his knees to win the task or at least, to not let Grindelwald win, because he had made a ridiculous bet with Mistress Volodya.

It seemed Madame Clémence had decided to stay out of the said bet though, which meant Black had no problem with Vinda winning, other than his pride that would probably not survive the occurrence.

Speaking of the Beauxbâtons headmistress, she was standing at Vinda’s side as the two women were exchanging a few words in quick French.

Vinda was sitting with her back straight and her left leg crossed over her right and looked the perfect picture of calm and courage as she awaited her fate; the only tell-tale sign that she wasn’t feeling as calm as she looked being the constant bouncing of her high-heeled clad foot.

Because yes, Vinda Rosier was wearing high-heels for the task, something her headmistress didn’t seem to approve too much of.

But beauty was pain after all…

Finally, twenty minutes later, the task was supposed to start at any minute now and Grindelwald still hadn’t shown up in the champions' tent yet; not that Albus was wondering where the other boy was, because he wasn’t.

He had had enough time to ponder some more about last night’s kiss as he waited for the tournament to begin and had come up to the conclusion that he had all but made up the sudden attraction he was feeling for Grindelwald in his head.

He certainly wasn’t in love with that pompous Durmstrang git; not him, the epitome of intelligence and good behavior.

At least Albus felt better for a few minutes. Until Gellert finally showed up, that is.

A glance at Grindelwald, who looked slightly paler than usual as he entered the tent in his handsome tournament uniform and Albus knew he was done for.

Gellert was once more all boyish attitude and grace and nonchalance, which made Albus' heart beat faster.

Blimey, what was wrong with him?

Gellert had just silently sat down with both of his legs dangling from the side of his chair, when a tall man with a shock of black hair and a giant scar on his forehead showed up unannounced into the champions’ tent.

The latter quickly introduced himself by saying that he was Dylan Stump from the Department of Magical Games of the Ministry of Magic. He then said that he was a famous retired Quidditch player who had played for the Chudley Cannons a few years ago, but it seemed the three champions weren’t big fans of Quidditch, because they had never heard of him prior to now.

Stump didn’t seem to be too fazed by this as he continued his speech and explained to them that he was going to be commenting their performance for the crowd with his charming voice during the task.

He was also going to act as a judge along with their school’s head and Alistair MacFarlane, who was shining by his absence this afternoon and was filling in for the current head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, who was currently vacationing in Antarctica.

Stump then tried to befriend Vinda.

He no doubt was charmed by how pretty she looked, but the cold stare she gave him as he told her he could get her some special tickets for an upcoming Quidditch game quickly shut him up.

Then, Gervaise Ollivander, the new owner of the famous London Ollivander’s wand shop, came in to check that each of their wands was in excellent condition and would be suitable for the competition.

He didn’t seem too impressed by Gellert’s rustic looking wand, but finally declared it was passable enough for him to compete along with the others.

It was a known fact after all that the Ollivander family thought highly of their wand’s design and were somewhat jealous of Gregorovitch’s European fame…

Ollivander finally left them a few minutes later, just as they could hear the students arrive and sit down in the arena that had been specifically transfigured for today’s task.

A quarter of an hour later, Margarita Lovelace from the Daily Prophet tried to enter their tent, but was roughly pushed out by Mistress Volodya, who had just come in to check that Gellert wasn’t throwing up on the furniture and that her potion had been effective.

Truth be told, no one seemed to want to cross that short woman except Gellert, really, and Margarita didn’t try to come back in for the remainder of the day.

Finally, five minutes before the task truly began, Madame Clémence tightly hugged Vinda, whose face was still expressionless, and Volodya awkwardly nodded in Grindelwald’s direction, who simply quirked an eyebrow at her, as the two women stepped out of the champions’ tent.

Gellert was now sprawled on a bed and was toying with his wand with a strange air of calmness, while Albus was pacing around the tent as he wondered which spell he was going to use today, when Vinda finally broke the silence as she poured herself a glass of water that had been charmed to remain cold. ‟Be sure not to bend too much during your performance, Grindelwald, otherwise your pants are going to rip.” She said as she casually sat back down on her chair with a smirk on her face and her glass in her hand.

Gellert smiled smugly at her.‟I’m sure you’d love it if it happened.”

‟Not I, but I know someone who would,” she mysteriously replied as Albus blushed and interrupted his pacing for a while. He was fairly sure she was talking about him, but how had she figured him out?

Was he truly that obvious?

Gellert gave her a once over and smirked some more as he sat straight on his bed.‟At least my uniform doesn’t make me look fat like yours do.”

It seemed he had touched a nerve, because Vinda’s serene expression shifted and her eyes suddenly grew cold.

It was true her uniform, which had been specifically designed for the tournament, wasn’t a thing of beauty; which was quite odd, considering Vinda Rosier usually dressed her best in all circumstances…

‟It’s because there’s a protective pouch inside my shirt for my wand, since we don’t know what we are going to go against yet.” She rolled her eyes at the Durmstrang champion.

Gellert snorted some more at her.

There was an awkward moment where Albus wondered if Vinda was going to jinx Gellert or not, when Dylan Stump stepped back into their tent.

He had a friendly smile on his face as he placed an arm around Albus’ shoulders. ‟Champions, listen up! Once you’ll have stepped into the tournament's arena, you’ll need to find a clue.  That mysterious clue is hidden on one of the magical creatures that you are going to encounter today." Stump paused." You will be judged according to three factors: the time that it takes you to retrieve said clue, the spells that you are going to use in the process and if you succeed in doing so.  If you harm the creatures during the task, you will lose points. If the creatures harm you, you will lose points. And remember, you can tap out of this at any  given time if you feel like it.” He grasped Albus’ shoulder as if the two were now the best of friends. ‟Now, I’ll let you decide among yourselves which of you three shall go first.”

‟I’m pretty sure Dumbledore will agree with me on this,” Gellert began as he quickly glanced at Vinda. ‟As they say around here: ladies first.”

Vinda glanced back at him, .‟Which is why Grindelwald will go first.”

Gellert shrugged as Stump smiled at him and gave him a thumb up.

Definitely, that man was trying too hard to look hip and friendly and it showed...

‟Awesome lad, get ready to go. Then, Beauxbâtons will go next and Hogwarts will go last.” He winked at them one last time before he stepped out. ‟Oh, and kids, may the best champion win.”

***

As soon as Gellert walked into the arena, he was surprised to see that he was literally standing inside a giant cage full of sand, rocks and trees as if he was himself an animal in a zoo.  

It seemed the whole of Hogwarts was attending the event and he could see the Beauxbâtons students in their blue uniforms in the middle of the bleachers that were all around the cage too. The nine other Durmstrang students of his delegation, easy to spot because of their dark uniform, were sitting among them as well.

It also seemed like some random people had shown up in order to watch the competition too, as Gellert saw older looking people sat here and there in the crowd.

Truth be told, the tickets to attend this event probably were crazy expensive and if what those people wanted was a good show, it was exactly what he was going to give them.

Margarita Lovelace waved at him wildly from her seat as he tried to avoid her stare and continued to scan the crowd.

He was relieved to see his father wasn’t there, because he really didn’t want to face him now, or ever again for that matter.

His head was still sore by now, but not to the point of making his vision blurry or wanting to throw up, which was good.

Very good.

Gellert could feel his heart beat loudly with anticipation in his chest as a column of red fire suddenly appeared in one of the corner of the cage. A couple of fire dwelling salamanders soon emerged out of it and Gellert smiled.

Who was scared of stupid salamanders in the first place, really?

This task would be fairly easy and there really was nothing to worry about. He would simply need to separate the salamanders at first and to flip them over to see which one was hiding the clue on it's body.

Plus, salamanders needed to stay close to the fire from which they had been birthed from, which meant they would be stuck in the corner of the cage, which would make everything even more easier.

It truly was no big deal. No big deal at all.

He would be done in about 10 minutes flat.

‟Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us this afternoon for the First Task of the Triwizard Tournament. My name is Dylan Stump and I will be your lovely host tonight!” Some people cheered, while someone loudly yelled ′that the Chudley Cannons were way better off without Stump’s lazy ass on their team′ from somewhere in the back of the bleachers.

Of course, the ex-Quidditch player acted as though he had heard nothing and continued his welcome speech with a smile still plastered on his face.‟Our first candidate today is the Durmstrang champion, Gellert Grindelwald. He’s the youngest among our current champions, since he is only sixteen years old.” Stump laughed and winked exaggeratedly at Madame Clémence, who was sitting next to him at the jury's table and who all but shuddered and shifted her chair a bit so as not to be too close to him.

Gellert pondered what he should do first as he watched the two salamanders who seemed relatively calm from a distance.

‟Our champion is fairly popular among the ladies too…” Stump declared as most of the students began to whisper at once. ‟A trait we both share.”

Gellert walked closer to the salamander’s fire as he pulled his wand out of his boot and was surprised to see that the two reptiles were able to walk out of it and toward him.

Someone must have fed them some peppers, then… Gellert stayed his ground as the two creatures advanced closer to him.

‟I forgot to mention that he’s a Capricorn,” Stump added as Gellert internally cringed. What other stupid fact was Stump going to blurt out next?

Gellert used a knockback jinx on the first salamander, which was backed in one of the corners of the cage, while he wandlessly flipped the other one over.

‟Nice use of the knockback jinx there,” Stump said as some members of the audience clapped.

A quick glance told Gellert that the first salamander wasn’t carrying the clue on its body and he flipped it back on it’s leg and let it go.

As he raised his head, he saw that the second salamander, the one he had backed into the corner of the cage, was charging at him and by reflex, he used a Glacius on it before it got too close to him and burned him, which was a mistake.

A huge mistake at that, for the salamander was hurt by the cold spell and began to screech loudly in agony.

Gellert knew he was going to lose some points for this and he cursed himself for using that spell, when suddenly, all hell broke loose.

From the column of fire emerged five other salamanders and they didn’t seem too pleased either as they all but ran toward Gellert at once.

 _Schei_ _ß_ _e,_ this clearly was karma for what he had done to his poor pet Chupacabra Antonio when he was 10...

***

Back in the champions' tent, Albus had resumed his pacing, while Vinda was nervously fidgeting with the pouch that was sown into her shirt.

The two champions were closely listening to Stump’s comments, since they weren’t allowed to watch Gellert’s performance and it was truly nerve-wracking.

‟The judges are not impressed,” they heard Stump declare. ‟It seems one of the beasts was injured. It’s not your best move, lad!”

They also could hear the crowd cheer and chant depending on what Gellert was doing, which helped a bit in imagining what was going on in the arena.

Suddenly, everyone went silent at once and they wondered if Gellert had finally succeeded in retrieving his clue. Vinda got up and swiftly readied herself, since she was to go next, when someone began to scream.

‟Oh, the Durmstrang champion is on fire! HE LITERALLY IS ON FIRE!” Stump all but yelled and Vinda blanched as she shared a look with Albus.

Were they really doing this simply for fun, a bit of money and eternal glory?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep, I had to stop there for dramatic reasons (and because 4000 words are already quite long to edit :P!).
> 
> Well, things don’t sound too good for Gellert, right?
> 
> Comments and kudos make my day :D


	7. Just another casual picnic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go with the second part of the First Task and the biggest chapter of this story so far! :D  
> As always, English is not my first language!

Suddenly, Vinda and Albus heard the crowd let out a surprised gasp and then cheer so loudly that their tent, and probably the whole arena next to it, were literally shaking.

‟Have you seen this?! I can’t believe my eyes! IT WAS INCREDIBLE!” Stump loudly exclaimed in his magical megaphone; yet, it was barely possible to hear him over the raving crowd.‟The judges are now going to reveal the Durmstrang champion’s score. ”

Vinda quirked a questioning eyebrow at Albus, as the latter, who was as puzzled as she was, shrugged.

Barely two minutes ago, Gellert was supposedly on fire and now, his task was over and he had somehow managed to find his clue. The two champions were dying to know what exactly he had done to turn the situation to his advantage, but it would need to wait after their own task was over.

‟For my part, ladies and gentlemen, I am giving Grindelwald’s overall performance a 9.5 out of 10. Mistress Volodya, Durmstrang’s headmistress, is giving her student a 7, which honestly is quite surprising! Headmaster Black is giving him an 8, while Madame Clémence from Beauxbâtons is giving him an 8.5 out of 10. Finally, my colleague from the Ministry is giving him a 9, which means our champion obtained a total of 42 points out of a possible score of 50. Not bad! Not bad at all...”

The crowd cheered some more, before some students began to laugh out loud.

‘Ooops young man, I’m not sure you should flip that finger toward the judges’ table!” There was an awkward silence during which they heard Mistress Volodya yell something in Russian through Stump’s megaphone, before the latter claimed it back. ‟My guess is that Mr. Grindelwald might be slightly confused due to his head injury. As we all can see, a mediwizard is slowly escorting the Durmstrang champion out of the arena, while members of our staff are tidying things up for our next competitor.”

Albus sat down on the edge of his chair and glanced at Vinda.

The latter, as if she had been summoned, slowly rose from her chair, pulled her wand out of her shirt’s pocket and walked up to the tent’s door. 

She was ready to show everyone just what she was made of.

***

When Vinda Rosier stepped into the arena’s giant cage, she didn’t know what to expect.

All she knew is that the creature she was going to face was able to produce fire, since Gellert had been badly burned; but she was so determined to outdo the latter’s score at this point, that she was ready to face a dragon without wincing if she needed to.

She stared at the bleachers and easily spotted her parents, who were sitting with their back straight in the front row.  She tilted her head to show them that she was acknowledging their presence to the tournament and they did the same: nothing more, nothing less.

Her relationship with them wasn’t at it’s best, but now was not the time to dwell on family matters.

She needed to stay focused on the task at hand.

‟Now, on to our second performance of the afternoon,” Stump said as the crowd turned silent once more.  ‟This time around in the arena, we have Vinda Rosier from the Beauxbâtons Academy of Magic. At almost 17, this young witch is as pretty as she is intelligent, which as anyone with eyes can see, means a lot. I must admit that I, an ex-Quidditch player who can have all the women I’ve ever wanted in the world, have rarely seen such a beauty.”

Volodya said something in the background and Stump cleared his throat and went back to his commenting. ‟Our champion enjoys fashion and beauty products.”

Vinda quickly toned down Stump’s voice: his comments were ridiculous anyway.

As the French witch studied her surroundings, she soon spotted a column of fire in one corner of the cage and the two fire dwelling salamanders who were resting near it.

The beauty let out a haughty laugh at their sight.

Was that it? Salamanders?! Had Grindelwald really been injured by those reptiles? What an amateur!

And here she had taught that he was going to be her biggest competition in this tournament…What a letdown!

‟Rosier is among the top students of her year. She is particularly talented in Charms and Herbology.” continued Stump as Vinda slowly walked up to the blazing fire and closer to the magical creatures.

She then paused when one of the two salamanders stopped what it was doing and stared back at her with curiosity.

‟Rosier is a Sagittarius.”

Without breaking eye contact with the fire dwelling reptile, Vinda slowly walked toward it… and stepped into some fresh droppings in the process.

‟Ooooh, what a pity!” Stump exclaimed as the French witch was cursing herself. ‟ Those shoes truly were a thing of beauty, but I guess this is what happens when one wears her costly high-heels during such a critical competition!”

Vinda all but glared daggers at Stump, who went back to blurting out stupid facts about her, as she tried to wipe her shoe in the grass; an action that proved to be a mistake, since the salamander she had been looking at felt in danger due to her strange behavior.

The two reptiles charged at her at once and she quickly understood why Gellert had used a Glacius spell on one of them.

It was exactly what she wanted to do now, but forced herself to use the Ebublio jinx instead.

‟This is very clever of Rosier to use such a spell!”Stump commented, as the two salamanders were suddenly trapped inside giant bubbles, thanks to her spell, and began to hover over the ground of the arena.

The two creatures didn’t seem too happy about their current situation and tried to break free of their prison by using the end of their pointy tail. Vinda quickly scanned the body of the first salamander and found nothing out of the ordinary on its skin, which meant the clue wasn’t glued to it’s body.

‟It seems our champion is already looking for her clue! So far so good, Ms Rosier!” chimed in Stump as the crowd was cheering and calling her name.

As the witch looked at the second reptile, she quickly spotted a glowing piece of parchment that was stuck to its belly. While she was still wondering what she should do next, the first salamander broke free of its bubble and decided to attack her.

Luckily, all thanks to her incredible reflexes, she jumped aside and the salamander missed her by a hair.

She wasn’t quick enough to avoid the creature’s next move though and her skirt caught fire.  She soon felt the heat spread on her shins and quickly used Aguamanti to put the fire out.

Within the next minute, she threw a Knockback charm at the salamander that seemed to be ready to attack her once more, before she used a second Ebublio jinx on it

She then took a few seconds to catch her breath and used a cooling charm on her burnt legs.

‟That looks very painful, but at least it’s probably going to take a while before she’ll need to shave!” Stump commented before he burst out laughing.

That idiot was very lucky that she was in such pain; otherwise she would have gladly hexed him into next year just to shut him up!

Vinda then burst the bubble of the second creature; the one that was carrying the clue on itself, and used an Immobulus on it. In a flash, she grabbed the piece of parchment that was glued on the reptile’s body and let out a deep breath.

It was all over… She had done it!

The crowd went mad, but she wasn’t feeling like celebrating right now, since the pain she could feel on her legs was becoming way too much to handle. Her vision was hazy as a mediwizard (probably the same who had come to fetch Gellert a few minutes earlier) walked her out of the arena. The last thing she heard as she was being transported back to the castle in order to get her injury checked was her score: 44 out of 50, which meant that she had obtained more points than Grindelwald and was in the lead for now.

***

The crowd was still cheering when Albus walked up to the arena. The bleachers were full and all of Hogwarts’ student body began to chant his name as soon as he walked into the giant cage.

‟And now, for our last performance, may I present to you the Hogwarts champion: Albus Brian Wulfric Percival Dumbledore! With a name as long as that, I do hope your mother doesn’t ground you too much, young man! Otherwise, she must be out of breath all of the time,” Stump exclaimed before he burst out laughing at his own joke.

Albus took in the sight in front of him and quickly spotted the fire dwelling salamanders. The two magical creatures were near the left corner of the cage and close to a roaring fire.

The redhead sat on the ground, as far away from the salamanders as possible, as he thought carefully about what he should do next.

‟At seventeen, Dumbledore is Head Boy, top of his class and has also been appointed as a youth representative for the Wizengamot. That’s a pretty impressive CV, if you ask me!”

The two creatures seemed unaware of his presence so far and Albus enjoyed keeping it that way as long as possible. He looked around himself and picked two small rocks that were on the ground close to his left foot. Within seconds, he transfigured them into a pair of fire-resistant gloves.

The gloves didn’t look too fancy, mind you, and weren’t one of his best spell work, but he quickly put them on anyway.

After all, they were key to the next steps of his plan…

‟Dumbledore has two siblings and his astrological sign is Leo.” Stump continued as Albus summoned a piece of parchment and a quill.

 Margarita Lovelace, the Daily Prophet journalist, didn’t seem too pleased by his action, since it was her belongings who flew directly to him. It seemed quite obvious to everyone around her that she would be writing something nasty about him in her next article (if she ever managed to write anything at all without her quill).

‟ I do wonder what our champion is writing down. Let’s hope he is not writing his will as we speak!”Stump added as some spectators laughed at his joke, while others shook their head with disapproval.

Albus didn’t seem to mind the latter’s joke.

It seemed he wasn’t listening to Stump anyway. 

The champion folded the note he had just finished writing, whistled and  then threw the folded piece of parchment up into the air. It was almost instantly caught by a barn owl who hooted as he swooped past him and flew out of the arena.

The redhead then sat back down on the grass and transfigured a third rock into a big fluffy purple blanket that he soon placed on the ground. Afterwards, he waved his wand around and music began to play as the crowd in the arena stared at him with wonder.

‟What exactly is Dumbledore up to? Perhaps, he has asked his girlfriend to join him for a romantic dinner?”Stump said as the crowd, in awe, was mostly silent by now.

The salamanders seemed to wonder what was going on too, as they cautiously made their way up to the blanket.

A loud hoot was then heard as the barn owl, already back from it’s errand, flew toward it’s master.

Albus, who was still sitting on the ground, swiftly got up and caught the small package his owl had brought back. He then sat back down and slowly opened the parcel, revealing a dozen of peppers of various sizes, shapes and colors.

Not a sound could be heard in the arena as some spectators were wondering what exactly was going on, while others were fairly sure Dumbledore had lost his marbles.

A few seconds later, Albus picked two strands of grass and transfigured them into two fancy dinner plates, just as the salamanders stopped in front of the blanket.

The redhead then placed various peppers in each plate and delicately placed the plates at either end of the blanket.

The salamanders stared at each other before they each walked up to a plate and sat in front of it.

A few seconds later, the reptiles happily began to eat their meal, as Albus took a bite of one leftover pepper and pulled a face at how strong it tasted.

Stump seemed absolutely transfixed by all of this.‟Merlin, are you seeing what I am seeing?”

While the salamanders were busy eating their food, Albus checked their body for the clue. The music was still playing and the salamanders seemed to be pretty relaxed by now. Plus, with his gloves on, there weren’t any risks for him to get hurt in the first place.

A few minutes later, the crowd went wild as Albus successfully unglued a shimmering piece of paper from under the left foot of the second salamander and raised his arm into the air so the  paper was clearly visible for everyone to see.

The crowd screamed even more loudly afterwards, something Albus didn’t even think was possible, when the judges showed him their scores and  it summed up to a total of 47.

All in all, he had lost a few points because his performance had been the longest yet, but he had also been the only one who hadn’t been hurt today, which made up for most of his lost points.

‟Thank you for attending today’s task,” Stump managed to say over the crowd, who was still hysterical. ‟The Hogwarts champion is now in the lead, followed closely by the Beauxbâtons champion. Last, but not least, is the Durmstrang Champion. Before you all get back to what you are suposed to do on a Saturday afternoon, which probably involves homework and studying : I’m sure; I would love to thank, along with the Ministry, Mrs. Gwenda O’Dowd, from the O’Dowd Fire Dwellers’ Sanctuary, who  graciously lent us her salamanders for today’s task. With that being said, we shall all see each other in February at Beauxbâtons, where the second task of the Triwizard Tournament will be held!”

***

‟My great-aunt came to visit earlier and told me it was a shame she hadn’t been able to snap a picture of me with my hair on fire,” Gellert piped up as he sat up in his hospital bed. ‟She said it would have looked lovely on her chimney.”

‟I hate to be the one to break it to you, but your great-aunt doesn’t sound like she’s the caring type,” Vinda replied from her own bed.

The two were stuck in the hospital wing and had been sent there right after their First Task had ended, a few hours earlier, since they were both suffering from severe burns.

Albus, who hadn’t been harmed during the task, sat on a chair between their beds.  

Madam Bloover, Hogwarts’matron, had been adamant about the fact that she wanted to check him too, just to be sure that he truly was as fit as he seemed to be.

As of now, the nurse was busy sorting things in her office, while the three champions were chatting together.

If they hadn’t been friends prior to the task, the fact that they had all faced the same perilous and potentially mortal challenge today had brought them closer together.

‟Well, I can assure you that she is,” Gellert snapped, before he closed his mouth and cleared his throat.

Vinda shared a confused look with Albus and decided to change the topic of their conversation. It seemed Grindelwald wasn’t in a great mood. The latter was probably still sore about the fact that he had ended last in the competition. ‟Dumbledore, why didn’t you Accio your peppers instead of writing that note and sending it? It would have saved you some time and your score could have been higher!”

‟I didn’t want to be rude to the house-elves, ” Albus replied. ‟I thought they would appreciate it if I asked them for the peppers first, instead of stealing them with a spell.”

Vinda smiled kindly at him as Gellert rolled his eyes in the background. House-elves were there to serve wizards in the first place. Why was Dumbledore making such a fuss about them?

The French witch studied the Durmstrang champion’s expression for a few seconds, before a knowing look appeared on her pretty face.

There was a lull in the conversation as Madam Bloover came back into the room to fetch Albus a few minutes later.

While the redhead was gone, Vinda turner her attention back to Gellert.  ‟I’ve never met anyone who could do wandless magic as you can, Grindelwald. It costs me to say so, but I’m sure your performance must have been pretty impressive to watch.”

‟I’m sure I could have scored higher if I had thought things through like Dumbledore did before I acted, but  as you might have guessed, patience is not one of my  strengths.”

Vinda winced slightly as she jumped down from her bed and sat on the edge of Gellert’s. Her legs were wrapped from her thighs down to her feet in a cooling bandage and she could feel her skin was slowly healing underneath it.

Madam Bloover had already assured her that her legs would be back to normal by tomorrow morning and that all she needed to do in order to do so was to drink a lot of water, eat some chocolate and rest.

Compared to Gellert’s, her injury was a walk in the park too.

The latter not only needed to have the skin on his skull grow back and heal, but the vain git had also asked Madam Hoover if she could do something about his burned-out hair.

He would need to remain in the hospital wing and endure some excruciating pain for a good two days, which might explain his current bad mood (or not), but at least, in the end, he would be back to his normal self.

Truth be told, he seemed more worried about the state of his hair than by anything else, which was very telling.

Madam Bloover had placed a sort of starry piece of cloth on top of Gellert’s head, which made it seem like he had been playing with his mother’s scarf collection or if he had just emerged out of the shower and had wrapped his hair in a towel.

Vinda tried to stifle her laughter as Gellert stared at her with puzzlement.

‟With that thing on your head, you look like a cheap fortune teller,” she declared as she pointed to the cloth on his head.

Gellert quirked an eyebrow at her and smirked ‟Well, it’s true that I am a seer.”

‟Stop telling lies, seers are extremely rare and only a few are actually able to predict anything. ”

‟Give me your hand then and I’ll show you what I can do.” Gellert mysteriously declared as Vinda, who seemed to be extremely doubtful, gave him her hand to read anyway.

The blonde turned her hand over so her palm was face up. With his fingers, he began to trace some of her palm’s lines.‟ See, this line right here is your love line. I can see that you are hiding things from everyone. I can also tell you that a forbidden romance is waiting for you right around the corner. ”

Vinda frowned. Did Gellert know she was as attracted to women as he was to men?

‟And here is your life line; and- ” Gellert frowned. ‟Wait, this is curious…And at this time of the year too?” he shook his head as Vinda frowned some more.

‟Grindelwald, what is it?”

‟Yep, it truly is the Black Lake I’m seeing there, ”the blonde declared before he spat in the witch’s palm.

‟ _Sale imbécile_!” Absolutely disgusted, Vinda let out a groan before she pulled her hand out of his grasp and he roared with laughter.

‟Ich bitte Sie, I shouldn’t have done that. It’s true that I am a seer though. I just can’t force myself to See things. I can only trigger my visions sometimes.”

Vinda wiped her hand on Gellert’s shirt as the latter stopped laughing. ‟And I’m supposed to believe you because you told me O’Dowd might have known things about the First Task?”

‟Trust me Rosier, if I had gotten my way with that boy, I would know everything about him : from his shoe size to his Gringotts’ vault number by now.” The blonde waggled his eyebrows. ‟I’m that good in bed.”

Vinda rolled her eyes once more, just as Albus and Madam Bloover came back from the latter’s office.

Albus didn’t seem to have any bandages on himself, which meant he really was fit to go back to his common room and to spend the night in his own dormitory, whereas Vinda and Gellert would need to spend the night in the hospital wing.

‟How are your legs Ms. Rosier? What about your head, Mr. Grindelwald?” Quickly asked Madam Bloover as Vinda climbed back into her own bed and she fussed over her.

The nurse then turned her attention back to her second patient.

While Madam Bloover was still looking at Gellert’s injury, a house-elf who was carrying a large basket filled to the brim with chocolate frogs and various candies appeared into the room.

The three champions stared at the creature with curiosity as he walked up to them.

‟A present for Mr. Grindelwald, sir.” The house-elf declared before he placed the basket on Gellert’s bed.

The latter frowned. ‟It’s probably from my Tante Hilda whom you said wasn’t of a very kind nature, Rosier.”

Vinda muttered something rude in French under her breath, while the house-elf bowed and ran out of the room.

‟So is it from your great-aunt?” Albus asked as Gellert’s brow furrowed.

The blonde shook his head and shrugged.‟ There is only a drawing of a heart in the card that comes with the basket.”

‟I told you someone was in love with you. ”Vinda mysteriously declared as Albus’ heart sank a little. It seemed the redhead wasn’t the only one who had set his sight on the devilishly good looking Durmstrang boy…

Gellert grinned back at her.‟You mean you weren’t the one who sent me this in the first place?”

Vinda rolled her eyes and pulled her tongue out at him, before she grabbed the chocolate frog he was handing her and quickly popped it into her mouth.‟If you were somewhat nicer, I would tell you who your mysterious admirer is, but since you enjoy being such a bitch…”

‟Language, Ms Rosier!” The nurse said as she handed Gellert a potion to drink. The latter pulled a face but drank it anyway and yawned. ‟You may go now, Mr. Dumbledore. Ms. Rosier and Mr. Grindelwald will need to rest for a little while.”

With that being said, the nurse pushed Albus out of the room and alone with his thoughts…

Who could Gellert’s secret admirer be?

***

Teenage drama at the Triwizard Tournament

**By Margarita Lovelace**

_My dear readers,_

_As I have promised you a few weeks ago, I have attended the First Task of the Triwizard Tournament that occured on November 1st at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry._

_During the task, the three young champions had to face fifty blood-thirsty fire dwelling salamanders; something that truly was a horrible thing to watch, since all three champions ended up being almost mortally hurt in the process._

_Sadly, something even more dramatic has been going on between our champions and I can assure you that this hasn’t been caused by some magical reptiles…_

_It seems the Beauxbâtons champion, Vinda Rosier, is currently on the family way, as you may already have noticed simply by staring at the picture that I have taken the liberty to join with this article._

_I know you are all shocked upon reading this, but I have something even more disturbing to tell you… If you remember correctly from my last article, it seems that the father of this child is none other than the Durmstrang champion, Gellert Grindelwolt!_

_Oh, I don’t blame that poor girl for falling for that seductive young man. After all, who can resist a bad boy? Merlin knows she isn’t the first nor will she be the last to end up in that situation…_

_What I want to know now, and what you probably are all wondering as well,  is what Hogwarts is going to do about this? Of course, Rosier, who is only seventeen, won’t be able to participate in the next task of the tournament, since she could harm her unborn child._

_But more importantly, will the father of this precious little child take his responsibilities? I do hope so, my dear readers, I do hope so…_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the next chapter, the Yule ball fever is upon us!  
> Comments and kudos make my day :D


	8. Like father like son

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that’s it, the countdown to the Yule ball has officially begun!  
> As always, English is not my first language Xxx

Gellert was still sleeping soundlessly when Madam Bloover, in the early hours, rushed from her office to the hospital wing and roughly shook Vinda by both shoulders to wake her up.

A feat the nurse successfully managed with only three strong shakes.

‟ _Quoi? Que_ \- Oh, what is wrong Madam Bloover?” the young witch asked as she struggled to keep her eyes open; the result of a sleeping draught she had drunk the previous night that was supposed to help her sleep while the painful injuries on her legs were healing.

‟Is it true?” Bloover bluntly asked at once.  She was white-faced as she waved the latest issue of the Daily Prophet in Vinda’s face.‟ Is what Ms. Lovelace has written in her latest article true?”

‟What? What did she write this time around?” Vinda sat up straight in her bed as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and yawned twice.

The nurse pursed her lips, before she turned her back on her and began to unceremoniously wake Gellert up.

In order to do so, she pinched both of his arms so strongly; that soon, Vinda saw angry red marks appear on the boy’s porcelain skin.

Obviously, this behavior was absolutely unacceptable and the young witch swore that she would tell Madame Clémence, her headmistress, all about it as soon as she was released from the nurse’s care.

A few seconds later, Gellert grunted as he finally woke up from his deep slumber. Madam Bloover, now a deep shade of red in the face, literally threw the newspaper at him as he struggled to sit up in his bed.

‟This conduct is absolutely unacceptable, young man!” She snapped as Gellert leaned back down on the bed; still dazed.  ‟If I have a say in this matter;  you’ll be expelled!” She added as Gellert quickly flipped through the newspaper; his eyes barely open as he tried to understand what exactly was going on.

Vinda, now fully awake and slightly scared by the nurse’s weird behavior, tried to grab her wand to defend herself, but Bloover prevented her from doing so.

‟Ms. Rosier, hand me your arm please!”

 Vinda frowned as she tried to get up from her bed and pushed Bloover’s arm away.‟Why? So you can pinch me too? No, thank you!"

The nurse sighed and stared at her as if she was a petulant child. ‟Of course not!  I only want to harvest a few drops of your blood to check if you are truly expecting and if you do, I want to know how far along you are.”

Taken back by the nurse’s words, Vinda’s expression changed and went from surprised to insulted in an instant.  

‟I can assure you that I am-” She began, but was cut short when Madame Clémence rushed in with Volodya on her heels.

The two headmistresses were still in their nightgowns and had matching unreadable expressions on their face.

Vinda wasted no time in telling them what exactly was going on in the room. ‟Madame Clémence, this makeshift nurse here wants me to take a pregnancy test, when I don’t want to and I don’t need to either.”

The witch, convinced that her headmistress would put an end to this nonsense and do something about Bloover’s behavior,  was shocked to discover that the expression on Madame Clémence’s face softened as she sat on the edge of her bed.

‟ _Ma petite,_ do as she asks.  Otherwise, I will need to contact your parents and ask them to come to pick you up at once. I don’t need to tell you that you can’t participate in the Triwizard Tournament if you are with child; and we have good reasons to think so.”

This wasn’t the answer the young witch expected though.  She glared at the three women to show them how insulted and angry she was feeling right now; all thanks to their actions.

It was simply ridiculous to think that she and Gellert would sleep together, considering they were both attracted to the same sex. If her sexual orientation was still a secret, this isn’t the case for Gellert, who with his misadventure with O’Dowd has made his very clear.

Volodya stared at her, while out of arguments for now,  she handed her right arm to Madam Bloover. 

Madame Clémence brushed her hair soothingly as she coldly watched Bloover stick the point of a needle under the skin of her left wrist. Soon, blood flowed from the wound and the nurse carefully collected three small drops in a vial.

Bloover then slowly poured the blood in a boiling green cauldron as the three adult witches tensed and waited for the test’s results.

A few minutes later, the potion remained unchanged and the three adults began to relax. Madame Clémence smiled and Bloover breathed more slowly.

Gellert, who had stared at the scene in silence, seemed outraged by what he had just witnessed and by the article he had just finished reading; although, with the starry cloth still wrapped around his head, his murderous glare is way less effective than usual.

 ‟There was no need to do what you just did to Vinda. You know fully well Mistress Vo that I’m not even attracted to women to begin with. ”Gellert frowned as his gaze moved from the nurse to the two headmistresses. ‟ Please, enlighten me as to how I could have fathered a child if I have never even had sex with a woman in my life to begin with?”

Volodya glared back at him as Madame Clémence wiped her eyes and delicately patted Vinda on the back, relieved that her champion would still be able to represent her school in the Triwizard Tournament.  

Vinda, still shocked by what had just happened, pursed her lips and remained silent as she blankly looked at Gellert, who tilted his head in her direction as if to ask her if she was okay.

At the exact same moment, Volodya turned her back on her rebellious student, while Madam Bloover slowly walked back toward her office, the cauldron containing Vinda’s blood and the green potion still in hand.

‟Don’t worry Ms. Bloover, I have the perfect punishment for those two. Teen pregnancy is not a topic to be treated with lightly and I’ll make sure that they understand the consequences that could have come out of their debauchery.”

With that being said, Volodya left the hospital wing as Clémence followed in her stead.

It seemed the matter was solved for now;  but it wasn't.

What Nikita Volodya, Agnes Bloover and Clémence Touraine didn't know by now, was that what they had just done has just pushed two of the most brilliant dark minds together, cementing a friendship that would last for a lifetime.

And those two would get their revenge.

***

‟Have you seen all the posters everywhere around the school?” Alicia Sparrow asked as she sat down at the Gryffindor table.

Four days had already passed since the First Task; and now, since the Second Task was only scheduled in February, all everyone was whispering about was the infamous Yule ball.

Occurring a few days before the Christmas break, the Yule ball was the perfect occasion for the students from fourth to seventh year to dance, to find a date and to maybe get the chance to fondle said date during the dance.

Elphias shrugged as Henry quickly glanced at Lexia Fleamont. Was he going to ask her to the ball and put an end to their obvious flirting?

Cygnus Black probably already had a bet going on about it…

Albus stopped reading his book and stared back at Alicia, who poked Henry in the ribs. The latter yelped and Lexia gave her a thumb up as she snorted out loud.

Aberforth, who was sitting a few seats away from them, was writing a letter to his sister Ariana, as he distractedly listened to his schoolmates’ conversation.

Now that he had seen the kind of dangers the Triwizard champions had to face during the competition, he had decided that he was quite glad he hadn’t been picked out as the Hogwarts’ champion in the end.  His mood had also slightly improved. Slightly.

Plus, if Albus died during the competition, he would probably inherit his room, which was bigger and had a better view than his own bedroom.

All in all, it was a nice perspective…

‟ _Boys!_ Haven’t you heard what I’ve just said? The Yule ball is right around the corner!” Alicia declared, more loudly this time around, before she sighed with exasperation.‟ Albus, since you are a champion, you should ask Clarissa to go to the ball with you _now_ before someone gets to her first!”

Albus quirked an eyebrow at her and was about to tell her that Clarissa was a very nice girl, but wasn’t his type; when Gellert, who was carrying a rather large bag, appeared in the Great Hall.

The latter waved at Albus, whose heart missed a beat, before he walked up to the Gryffindor table and sat in between Elphias and Alicia.

Since the First Task, Gellert and Vinda had spent a lot of time together in and out of the hospital wing and they now considered Albus as a worthy opponent; if not as a friend.

Which was all to Albus’ liking, since his little infatuation with Grindelwald kept growing with every moment spent in the blonde’s company.

Last evening, the two were having a very nice conversation about the Second Giant war, when Volodya had come to fetch Gellert in the library to tell him exactly what the punishment she had promised him and Vinda would get was.

Eager to know more about what had happened with Mistress Volodya, Albus stared at the blonde. The latter opened his bag and carefully pulled a-

‟What in Merlin’s name are you doing with a flobberworm in your bag?” Henry asked as Gellert placed the said creature on the table.

A black handkerchief was tied in the middle of the worm’s body. A flow of thick mucus was dripping from both of it’s ends.

‟My punishment from Mistress Vo, ”Gellert explained as Lexia, who looked green in the face, swiftly left the table.‟His name is Gunther.”

‟You’ve given this thing a name? ”Alicia asked as she gagged at Gunther’s smell.

‟Well, since I’ve had to feed it every four hours for the last fourteen hours or so; he does.”

Aberforth shook his head as he finished his letter. It seemed Volodya was as crazy as she looked, because who in their right mind would place a living creature into Grindelwald’s care?

Elphias looked at Gunther with curiosity, but kept his distance from it as the creature sneezed, sending mucus on his food. ‟What happens if you forget to feed it?”

‟He screams and he vomits mucus everywhere.”

Alicia gagged some more. ‟Delightful. Which side is his mouth?”

‟They both are,” Gellert smirked. ‟ _Ja,_ I know what you are all thinking now... How does this thing mate?” He waggled his eyebrows.  ‟Well, I have no clue either.”

Albus moved his book away from Gunther, as Gellert pulled a few green leaves out from his bag. ‟And Volodya asked you to take care of this thing as a punishment for Lovelace’s article?”

The blonde nodded as Elphias pushed his plate aside.

‟That’s harsh, considering everyone knows Lovelace writes crap to begin with,” Henry said as he pinched his nose. Gunther began to eat and stopped wailing. ‟Your hair looks good by the way. No one would suspect that your big head was on fire just a few days ago.”

‟Aw, thank you Potter! You are going to make me blush…” Gellert replied mockingly as he batted his eyelashes and handed another green leaf to Gunther. ‟What were you all talking about before I hijacked your conversation?”

‟The Yule ball,” Albus said as he blushed a little.

His most ardent desire right now was to go to the ball with Gellert, but this would mean he would need to out himself and he wasn’t ready to do so just yet.

Maybe he could suggest that the two of them should go with Vinda as friends?

He was ready to do anything if it meant Gellert’s secret admirer, who had sent more chocolates and a rather romantic love letter in the last few days, wouldn’t get to go with the blonde to the ball.

As if she had been summoned by his thoughts, Vinda left the Ravenclaw table, walked up to them and sat down next to Gellert.

‟Gute Morgen, Mutter,” Gellert said as he greeted his friend by handing her the flobberworm.

The two’s punishment (taking care of Gunther in turn for the next month or so) for something they had never done in the first place had made them bond so fast, that they now spent most of their time together.

‟Have you told Albus about our date?” She asked as she picked Gunther, placed him in front of her and gave him another leaf to eat.

Albus quirked a questioning eyebrow at the both of them as Gellert shook his head. Alicia cleared her throat. ‟Albus, we should head to Arithmancy now if we don’t want to be late.”

Albus nodded at his friend as he began to gather his things.

‟We want to spend our Sunday afternoon at the Two Broomsticks and discuss our clue for the Second Task. Do you want to join us?”

A whole afternoon in Hogsmeade spent with Gellert (oh, and Vinda too)? Of course he would love to! He was supposed to hang out with Elphias, but surely they could postpone their visit to Honeydukes earlier that day or at their next outing, right?

Elphias opened his mouth to say something, but Albus cut him short. ‟Of course I will!”

Luckily, the redhead got up just in time; because Gunther, who seemed to have eaten too many leaves all at once, choked and spurted so much mucus, the table was covered with it.

Both Vinda and Gellert cursed in their respective mother tongue as he, Elphias and Alicia left for their class, while Henry was in stitches a few steps behind them.

Truly, the weekend couldn’t come fast enough.

***

With the Yule ball fast approaching and Maragarita Lovelace’s latest shocking article (which had proved to be unfounded in the end, thank Merlin!), the three heads of school had decided that the older students should attend a ‘special’ class taught by Madam Bloover.

During this particular class, the Hogwarts’ matron was supposed to discuss about se- about the physical aspects of a love relationship.

Which was why, on Thursday evening, most of the sixth and seventh years students from Hogwarts, Durmstrang and Beauxbâtons were all cooped up in the hospital wing, as the poor nurse was trying to tell them all about the dragons and the billywigs.

‟When a witch and a wizard really like each other, they-” Bloover paused and cleared her throat as some students were gaping at her, while others were blushing. ‟ They get married first.”

A confused sixth year Ravenclaw raised his hand. ‟But, what about those who can’t get married, like wizards who love wizards and witches who love witches?”

‟Some might experience such a phase at one point in their life, but it usually doesn’t last long,” the nurse replied reassuringly.

Some students nodded, while Gellert, who was sitting in the back of the room with Vinda, rolled his eyes. ‟ It only lasts until death…” he mumbled as Bloover glared at him.

The nurse was keeping a close eye on him and was determined not to let him ruin everything this time around.

Gellert leaned back in his chair and smirked at her.

Gunther, who was on Vinda’s knees and was wrapped in a tiny black blanket which made him truly look like a swaddled newborn, sneezed, splattering the back of a Hufflepuff fifth year’s chair with mucus.

Bloover continued her speech, as the Hufflepuff student ran out of the room.  She probably felt like throwing up, which was perfectly understandable in this case. ‟Sometimes, when a married couple really loves each other, the man might want to insert his eh- wand into his wife’s cauldron.”

‟But in what ehm …hole is my eh…wand supposed to go?” a confused looking Beauxbâtons boy asked in bad English.

Some students began to cough nervously as Gellert burst out laughing and Vinda bit her lip.

‟Merlin, do you need a map or something?” Henry Potter all but yelled as more students began to laugh and Madam Bloover blushed too and asked them to calm down.

 It was a pity the prefects were absent tonight since they already had a meeting, because she desperately needed their help right now.

‟But what about wizards who don’t care for cauldrons, but prefer to have fun with wands instead?” Gellert asked, looking like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth.

Bloover’s face grew a deeper shade of red.‟Mr. Grindelwald, do-”

‟What? I’m not scared to say that I’m a seasoned wand wielder myself.”Gellert smugly replied as the nurse coughed some more. ‟Are we going to talk about sex positions? I’d love to learn some new ones. Also, I know a thing or two about lubricant charms, but-”

‟THE CLASS IS DISMISSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE,” Bloover all but yelled as some students scattered out of the Hospital wing, while others stayed behind to discuss things with Gellert.

Headmaster Black wouldn’t be too pleased, but the nurse wasn’t paid enough to deal with these matters anyway…

***

‟I’m glad to see that you’ve finally decided to join us today, Mr. Grindelwald, ”Professor Viridian said as he stopped writing on his board and placed his chalk on his desk.

The teacher hated his Friday mornings, since he had to teach three Potions class back to back, and now that Grindelwald, that Durmstrang nuisance, had joined his class, it seemed it had made things twice as bad.

‟My son needed to be fed, sir.” Gellert cheekily replied as he walked up to his seat, sat down next to Albus and placed Gunther in between them on top of their table. ‟ You understand, sir,  that being a father means that I now have some responsibilities to put first before I think about myself or my education…”

Viridian clicked his tongue with annoyance. ‟As I was saying before we were interrupted by Mr. Grindelwald; today, we are going to brew an exceptionally difficult potion.” He paused as everyone intently stared at him. Well, everyone except Gellert, who was already busy doodling the Deathly Hallow symbol on Gunther’s blanket. ‟Indeed, today, we are going to prepare Amortentia.”

Most students gasped as Gellert paused mid-doodling. What was Amortentia already?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and kudos make my day :D


	9. Undisclosed desires

‟Do you want me to prepare the ingredients or do you prefer to watch me work while you jot down some notes for our essay?”

‟I think it would be best if we both worked on the ingredients first, since there are a lot of them.  Afterward, I’ll add them to our cauldron while you’ll stir.” Gellert carefully moved Gunther from his spot on the table and placed his cauldron in between him and Albus. ‟I’m an expert potioneer after all.”

Albus quirked a doubtful eyebrow at the blonde as Gunther began to nibble with both of his mouths at a valerian root his ‘father’ had just given him. ‟If you are such an expert, why did you mess with our potion on purpose the last time around?”

Gellert shrugged ‟Why not?” He flashed Albus a cocky grin as he picked some rose petals from a pouch in his bag and placed them on their table.

Albus sighed as he began to cut three ashwinder eggs in four. ‟ What do you think Amortentia will smell like?”

The redhead’s heart began to beat faster. Would his smell like Gellert?

‟I don’t expect it to smell anything. I don’t believe in love.” Gellert paused what he was doing and scratched the back of his head. If he saw the slight change in Albus’ demeanor, whose shoulders had slightly slumped due to his answer, he didn’t say anything about it.  ‟Can’t wait to be back to using my own hair products... Here, take care of the pearl dust, while I crush the moonstones.”

‟You are still using the soothing balms Madam Bloover gave you? ”

Gellert simply nodded as they continued to work in silence for a few more minutes. When, finally, all of their ingredients were ready,  Albus light a fire underneath their cauldron, while Gellert began to methodically add each ingredient in the said cauldron as they had been instructed to.

‟Now, remember students that it is impossible to manufacture or to imitate true love. Amortentia will cause an obsession for the person who administered it to the drinker, but it can’t cause a lasting love.” Viridian droned as he began to circle around the room. ‟Which is why I will personally ensure that none of your potions will leave this classroom. It is not because the Yule ball is coming and that your crush hasn’t asked you out yet that you can use Amortentia on them!”

Some students snorted to the teacher’s comment while Gellert rolled his eyes.

Who needed a love potion to score a date?  

Gunther began to wail once more. Gellert sighed as Albus gave the poor flobberworm some dittany leaves to chew on.

Twenty minutes later, most students were done with their potion and some even began to exclaim out loud what smells they were able to pick up from theirs.

You see, not only the smell of Amortentia is different for everyone, but it’s also multi-faceted, thus why some students seemed baffled by what they were smelling, while others were thrilled about it.

Gunther sneezed as he finished eating his leaves and Gellert grabbed him just in time to prevent some of the worm’s mucus to end up in their soon to be finished potion, which would no doubt have tempered with it.

At first, Gellert was surprised that he wasn’t picking up any scents at all.

Was he truly immune to love as he had just told Albus?

Finally, two minutes later, he smelled the reassuring scent of old books. Then, a curious mix of outdoor and indoor scents that was indescribable in itself. He couldn’t put a name on it, but it reminded him of home.

The blonde couldn’t figure out what the third smell was though…

Albus had closed his eyes next to him and seemed as perplex as he was as he too was discovering the scents who would point to the person who supposedly would be the love of his life.

Gellert began to wonder if they had messed something up…

Their potion had it’s characteristic mother of pearl sheen and it’s steam rose in a spiral, like it was supposed to.

How strange…

Finally, when Albus rose from his seat to get to the front of the classroom to ask something to Viridian, it hit him. The third smell was Albus’ scent; a curious mix of sweets and ink.

 Now that the redhead wasn't standing next to him, it was obvious their potion reeked of him.

Gellert sighed and cursed under his breath. He was doomed.

‟What does it smell for you?” Albus asked expectantly as he sat back down next to the blonde with the worksheet they were supposed to complete in hand.

To Albus, Amortentia smelled like a freshly inked piece of parchment, a manly mix of spice and sweat (that wasn’t unpleasant) and the third scent was flowery, but he couldn’t point out what it truly was.

 He had already smelled that scent before, but where and when, he couldn’t say…

Gellert paused and tried to keep a neutral expression on his face as he quickly thought about what he should answer. ‟Nothing, as I suspected.”

Of course, he was lying; he certainly couldn’t tell his work companion that their potion was smelling of him.  Albus seemed to doubt his answer, but luckily didn’t push the matter farther as Viridian walked up to their table and checked on their potion.

‟Congratulations, Mr. Dumbledore,” The teacher said as Gellert rolled his eyes. ‟ I’m glad to know you can still brew magnificently well with such a work partner.”

Albus was about to reply something, when Gunther saved the day. The flobberworm crawled toward the edge of the table and began to emit a menacing growl. Viridian, unimpressed, crossed his arms over his chest and frowned at the magical creature.

Gunther growled a second time before he sprung on the teacher’s head and began to suck on it with both of it’s mouths.

The teacher yelled and tried to remove Gunther, but wasn’t able to do so as the flobberworm was so sticky he wasn’t able to get a firm grab on him.

Gunther began to hiss as mucus seemed to leak out of his body and the poor potion professor wondered what he should do next.

Gellert burst out laughing just as Viridian ran out of the room in search of a colleague who would help him in getting rid of the usually harmless worm

‟Grindelwald 2. Viridian 0, ” Henry commented as the rest of the class stared at Gellert with admiration.

The Durmstrang champion really was something else.

***

It was the middle of the night and Gellert still wasn’t sleeping.  

Truth be told, he was feeding Gunther once more at an ungodly hour so the flobberworm would get back to sleep and would finally stop howling, but it wasn’t solely what was keeping the Durmstrang champion awake.  

No, it was Amortentia that was keeping him awake; or more precisely, the fact that he seemed to have fallen in love with his British competitor even though he had done everything in his power so far to prevent this from happening in the first place.

Why was he attracted to that freckly red-haired dork in the first place?

And more importantly, what should he do next?

Should he ask Vinda’s opinion about it?

After all, she was a girl and girls were supposed to be good at love-related things, right?

Yes, Gellert thought, Vinda would know what to do about this.

Gunther, who’s stomach was full for now, yawned softly and curled into a ball on Gellert’s pillow.

A few minutes later, as the flobberworm began to snore, Gellert drifted off to sleep. A sleep during which he may or may not have dreamed of red hair and gangly limbs...

***

‟What are you two smirking about?” Albus asked as he sat down in front of Vinda. ‟I hope you weren’t talking about me.”

The three champions were sat close to the massive fireplace of the Two Broomsticks, one of Hogsmeade’s most famous pub.  Both Vinda and Gellert had an empty mug of butterbeer in front of them. Gunther was on the edge of the table closest to the fire and was sporting the tiny pink and blue scarf Albus had decided to knit for him in the last few days.

‟We were simply discussing about Margarita Lovelace and her latest article,” Vinda replied as she gestured to the server that they would like three more butterbeers as soon as possible. The latter, who didn’t seem indifferent to Vinda’s charm, quickly brought them to their table, his cheeks crimson as he mumbled something incomprehensible before he left them to their discussion.

‟Another one to add on your list of suitors V, ” Gellert commented as he brushed a curl out of his eyes and Albus gulped loudly.

‟You are one to talk, with that secret admirer of yours…” Vinda took a sip of her butterbeer. ‟You should maybe invite him to the ball.”

‟Did he sent you something else?” Albus tried not to seem too interested by where the conversation was heading as he pulled the parchment containing his clue from out of his bag and took his long red and yellow Gryffindor scarf off.

‟Of course,” Gellert evasively replied as he too took a sip of his butterbeer. Gunther sighed and turned both of his heads toward the fire. ‟I suggest we get back to business. I have another detention in about an hour.”

Vinda rolled her eyes. ‟What did you do this time around?”

 Gellert cracked a smile. ‟ I’m affraid our son permanently damaged Viridian’s wig.”

All three champions burst out laughing as the server walked past them once more and tried to impress Vinda by carrying too many plates in his hands.

Of course, the French witch ignored him.

‟So, the Second Task will be held at my school.”

‟Indeed.” Albus looked at both Vinda and Gellert in turns. Truth be told, he would have preferred to stare at Gellert all afternoon, but it wouldn’t be very subtle of him now, would it?

‟I don’t think we will need to face another magical creature this time around. Your school is located in the Pyrénées, isn’t it?” Vinda nodded and Gellert continued to explain his thought. ‟ I guess we can expect to do some mountaineering at least.”

Gunther yawned and turned on what Albus thought might be his back, when the redhead smelled _it_.

 _It_ being the third scent he had smelled in his Amortentia.

He glanced around and was surprised to see that all the students who were sitting around them were females; and most were eyeing Gellert with envy. It was true his hair looked particularly luscious today...

Albus frowned. Had he been confused about his sexuality all along?

Or- His heart started to beat even faster as a blush crept to his cheeks. Was it possible that Gellert…?

Albus scratched his nose.‟ This has nothing to do with our clue, but can you both smell that flowery scent?”

Vinda opened her mouth to answer something, just as the server dropped the impressive pile of mugs and plates he had been carrying around for the last five minutes or so.

‟ _Quel idiot_!” Vinda groaned as the poor clumsy boy quickly casted a reparo on the broken dishes and checked if the French witch was looking at him. ‟ I know what you mean Dumbledore; it smells like Leontopodium Alpinum.”

‟Edelweiss?” Albus frowned, weren’t those flowers from- Merlin, those were from Austria!

Gellert shrugged as Gunther yawned once more.‟I may or may not have used too much shampoo this morning to clean my hair after close to a month of only using some stinky soothing balms.”

Vinda rolled her eyes at the blonde, before a  playful smile appeared at the corner of her lips.‟Those flowers stink as well, Gellert.”

‟Rosier, never insult Austria’s national flower in front of me ever again.” Gellert retorted, a seducing smirk lighting his feature. Then, he frowned and groaned as he caught a glimpse of the clock that hung above the pub’s entrance. ‟Scheiße, I’ll need to head back to the castle soon; otherwise Volodya will positively murder me.‟

Albus nodded. His heart was still pounding wildly in his chest and he quickly took another sip of butterbeer to keep his countenance

‟Since we are all free tomorrow afternoon, I suggest we all gather here and try to make some more sense out of our clue.” Vinda began to pack as Gellert put his long black coat back on.

Albus smiled at them as he finished his butterbeer. They may not have found what the meaning of their clue was, but at least he was now sure that Gellert was meant to be the love of his life; which was the most fabulous thought in itself ever.

***

The clock had just chimed seven, when Margarita Lovelace placed her quill on her desk and stretched her arms and back.

Her latest article was almost finished and she could most definitely take a break from her writing for now.

She picked a few of her things and her purse, and was about to leave her office at the Daily Prophet, when her eyes rested on a wrapped box she hadn’t seen prior to now. It was possible Arnaud, her secretary, had brought her the box while she was too busy working, which might explain why she had no idea as to how it had appeared there.

Curious, she grabbed the said box and turned it over.

A note was attached to it: ‟A token of gratitude from our loving family to yours”.

 _Ah_ , gifts from her fans were always her favorites.

She quickly unwrapped the present and was delighted to discover that some of her dedicated readers had just sent her a box of chocolate. It was filled chocolates too, which couldn’t be anything else than delicious.

It was late and she was supposed to be on a diet, but who could say no to chocolate?

She carefully picked a piece and bit into it as she wondered what the filling was. It was very thick, creamy and salty. It looked like caramel, but she was fairly sure it wasn’t.

She decided to eat a second chocolate and then a third one, still puzzled by the mysterious filling.

As she grabbed a fourth chocolate, she discovered there was a moving drawing on the bottom of the chocolate’s box. She popped the chocolate she had just picked into her mouth and pushed the other chocolates around to get a better glance at it.

The drawing depicted a flobberworm looking up and then sneezing intermittently.

Suddenly, Margarita’s heart dropped as understanding dawned on her: those chocolates were filled with flobberworm mucus.

She quickly put a hand to her mouth and barely made it to the restroom, where she threw up everything she had eaten in the last few hours or so.

But who could have sent those?, Margarita wondered as tears were rolling down her cheeks and she was sick once more.

Somewhere in Scotland, both Vinda and Gellert smiled nastily.

One down, only three more to go…

***

Albus was still staring at the ceiling with a smile at the corner of his lips, when the sun began to shine.

Today would be the day where he would ask Gellert to go to the ball with him. After all, he was now sure it was Gellert’s scent he had smelled in his Amortentia; which meant he and Gellert were probably meant to be.

If at first things had been a bit rocky between them, it wasn’t ridiculous to think that romance would blossom quickly between them now...

Elphias began to stir on his right, while Potter mumbled in his sleep.

Yes, today was going to be a great day.

***

On this fine December afternoon, Albus left Elphias in front of Honeydukes, where his best friend was supposed to go and buy him his favorite sweets, while he was going to meet Gellert and Vinda for another session of brainstorming about their clue. Elphias hadn’t been too pleased to be left out once more, but when the Beauxbâtons girl he had met at the IHIHP walked into the candy store, he seemed to forget all about it.

Albus was in a great mood. Vinda had stated that she would arrive late to their meeting, since Gunther had caught the flu and she had to take care of him, which meant Albus would finally be alone with Gellert for a while.

He took a deep breath. It would be the perfect opportunity to ask Gellert out to the Yule ball.

The redhead swiftly pushed the door of the Two Broomsticks open and stepped in, welcomed at once by the delicious warmth of the pub.

A delicious cinnamon smell was floating around the room and mistletoe was hanging by the ceiling, which reminded him that Christmas was coming up soon and that he should really begin to think about which gifts he would buy for his mother and his siblings this year.

Albus couldn’t help himself from smiling ridiculously some more as he sat down.

He placed some books on the table; careful to place the Tales of Beedle the Bard on top of the pile, ordered two butterbeers and pulled a few pieces of parchment out of his bag.

Gellert was late, but it wasn’t that surprising. The latter had probably stopped by Zonko or something.

Soon, Albus’ butterbeers arrived. He took a sip and turned around to look outside at the falling snow; when his whole world came crashing down.

Right in front of the window was none other than Gellert.

 _His_ Gellert.

His Gellert who was open-mouth kissing the tall Beauxbâtons guy that seemed to be spying on them in the library a few days prior to the First Task.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GELLERT?!  
> Don’t worry everyone, Grindeldore will be an item VERY SOON.  
> In the next chapter, you’ll get the Yule ball :D  
> Kudos and comments make my day!


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